Saraz blog

Valentine’s Blog Hop at another Freaking scrappy challenge

2012-02-14T11:19:00.000-08:00

Another Freakin Scrappy Challenge are hosting a Valentines day blog hop with awesome prizes up for grabs.

If you are on the blog hop, welcome. My word for you is: HUG

Please leave a comment on this post, collect my clue word then head off to Chiqui's blog at :

http://www.chixgutierrez.blogspot.com/

I will randomly select one person who leaves me a comment to receive a spot prize from my blog. My winner will be drawn on March 1st.

Good luck and have fun!!!

If you are reading this post and are not already on the blog hop why not head over to :

http://another-freaking-scrappy-challenge.blogspot.co.nz/ and join in the fun. There are lots of great prizes to be won :)

Little Angel

2012-02-12T18:35:00.000-08:00

Ok Here's something a little bit different. I had so much fun doing the 'White with One' challenge that I thought I would give something similar a try. This time I combined the Prima sketch challenge for February with a just white (and a little cream and silver) layout. I had recently taken this photo of Benji with the sunlight shining through his hair like a halo. It made me think that even though he can be a little monkey at times he really is my little angel boy. I used texture paste and muslin to make a soft background and sprayed a little clear glimmer mist over it all to give a subtle shimmer. Then I die cut my Prima paper into an artisan shaped, distressed the edges and adhered it to the background along with doilies, lots of flowers and leaves, the gorgeous resin birdhouse and those fabulous white butterflies (all from Prima). The chipboard frame is from Scrapware and looks awesome dry brushed with white acrylic paint and gently rubbed over with silver metallic paste. The centres of my flowers are from Prima too - they come in packs of 10 and are a fantastic finishing touch to home-made flowers.
I completed my page with a 'Thickers' title and handwritten journaling. Whilst it isn't a traditional 'boy' page I love that it records the softness and beauty of babyhood. I love the 'all white' look too and I will definitely be trying this one again :)

So Happy to be 3!!

2012-02-11T20:15:00.000-08:00

This week my baby turned three. Although it was a bittersweet occasion for me (my baby is growing up way too fast!) he was over the moon! It was the first time that he had really understood what a birthday means and all the trimmings that go along with it. He was so excited to get presents (almost all Thomas the Tank Engine related), he relished being the centre of attention when everyone sung to him and he adored his 'train' birthday cake that his brothers lovely girlfriend had made for him. The smile didn't leave his face all day. In the middle of the day, when everyone else was at school I took some time to enjoy my little one, just him and me. We went to his favourite place, the beach and jumped over the waves together. This photo is my favourite of the day. It was a lucky shot really, I just depressed the shutter button at the right time and caught him in mid-jump. I love it because it really shows Benji how he is right now, a tiny little bundle of energy, exuberance and joy. I love him so much!
The theme for this week at Once Upon a Sketch is to combine their sketch with journaling about a male in your life who you love. I thought that this page was perfect. I printed out the photo at 6x8" size because I love it so much and added the words "You = Joy" before printing using an Ali Edwards digital brush. I used texture paste, spray ink, paint and gauze to make a soft 'beachy' background. The papers and most of the embellishments are from October Afternoon's 'Farmhouse' collection. The colours of these papers are perfect for beach photos.

Check out this - Valentines day blog hop!!!

2012-02-11T12:48:00.000-08:00

Potty Time and a Leibster award!!!!!

2012-02-10T11:40:00.000-08:00

First of all I want to say a big thankyou to Lizzy Hill at http://lizzyhill12.blogspot.co.nz/ for awarding my blog a Leibster Award. I am really honoured and it totally made my week!!!! Thanks so much Lizzy!
I recently found a cool challenge blog called 'White with One.' The idea is to create a page using only the colour white and that weeks nominated colour. Now I have problems limiting my choice of product when I'm creating so I thought that this would be a challenge that would be good for me!
The colour this week is yellow which was a perfect match for my sons shirt in these cute photos of him being toilet trained (not very successfully I may add - he loves his snuggly warm Huggies too much!) I used lemon paint and yellow glimmer mist in the background and the pulled out all the yellow papers and embellies that I owned and began to have fun! I found that by inking all the edges of my elements it helped to make them all 'pop' and separate them from each other. I love the result and it really did simplify things not having to worry about co-ordinating colours and having a limited choice of embelishments!

My new Car

2012-02-07T16:43:00.000-08:00

Just before Christmas my car (which I had had for 14 years) gave up the ghost. Since it was going to cost more to fix that the car was worth we decided it was time to buy a new one. I have always dreamed of owning a pink Porsche or a yellow VW beetle, but with 6 kids both those options are a little impractical (not to mention expensive!).
I settled for the white Toyota Estima in my picture. It was the first car that I test drove, and despite seeing many more cars over the subsequent few days, I came back to it. It is in pristine condition, is a nice cool white colour and best of all as far as the kids are concerned it has a ladder running up to the roof :)
I used up some older OA papers and combined them with the newer 'Boarding Pass' collection. The challenge for 'Fabulous Fridays' over at 'Frosted Designs' is to incorporate ribbin or twine onto your page (easy right!) so I added some twine to my clustered elements and a little ribbon along the top. I have had the chippie arrow and the green shipping tag in my stash for years so it wa nice to finally use them up - I find that the current trend of clustering elements on the page (which I love) is great for using up those odds and ends that have been in your stash for years but you no longer know what to do with!.

She's smitten!

2012-02-05T00:52:00.000-08:00

Natalie has been asking me to make a LO to commemorate her current obsession with Josh Hutcherson for a while now, so when she downloaded and printed off these photos for me I knew that she was serious!

I based the page on the current sketch at 'Purple Pumpkin' (the green leather heart and red spotty button are Purple Pumpkin products). I sprayed my background cardstock using large chipboard hearts as masks, then I stamped heart shapes and randomly splattered the page. The papers that I used are from the lovely Cosmo Cricket 'Clementine' collection. I arranged Natalies photos of Josh in three clusters around the page and used a current favourite photo of Natalie as my main focus. I really enjoy adding lots of little details to my clusters and most of my recent LOs have at least one area of clustered embellies. I completed the page with strip journaling and a 'Thickers' title.

Natalie loves it and ofcourse it is her new favourite page :)

Loving this journey with you

2012-02-02T17:17:00.000-08:00

This is my 34 month page for Benjis month by month album. It is based on a sketch that I saw in a scrapbooking magazine and I really loved. I love multi-photo layouts and I am always on the look out for inovative designs incorporating several photos on a single page LO. These photos were a few of my favourites that I took of Benji on Christmas morning. He was really into opening his pressies this year and almost all his gifts were train related (which was just fine with him!). The papers that I used are from my fabulous OA 'Holiday Style' collection. The round doily cut out is from the fantastic Purple Pumpkin and the chippie heart, scrapware. I really love the current trend of adding bakers twine to LOs and thought that it would be a great way to decorate the 'white space' on my page. In the end I used plain string because the colour worked better on my page than did any of the twine colours that I have. (looks like it might be time to buy some more twine colours :)
The current word challenge at 'Bird is the Word' is 'Journey' and I thought that would make an interesting title for my page.

First love

2012-02-02T01:42:00.000-08:00

My design team challenge this week over at Another Freaking Scrappy Challenge was to document a first love :
Just in time for Valentine’s Day next month – your first love – a real boy or girl, try to include a momento from that time with them, or download an image or something from that era from the internet if you wish. A pop or movie star crush can be substituted for a real live crush if you are too shy to tell us how it really was!!!
Well I was tempted to do a page about my teenage daughters current obsessions with movie stars and music icons, but then I came across this photo of myself at 17 with my chemistry class and teacher (who I had a serious crush on!)
I kept the page simple so that the photo would not be overwhelmed. I used lots of cut out hearts (ofcourse) and a masked, spray inked background. I added some buttons, cut-outs and bling to add interest to my heart design and completed the page with strip journaling. Why not have a try at this one yourself - there are prizes and guest DT positions to be won and you will end up with a great memory recorded for your kids and grandkids to giggle over in the future :)

Playtime in Paradise

2012-01-31T16:53:00.000-08:00

The inspiration challenge over at Get Picky this month is all things summer and holiday! A really easy one to play along with :) I am slowly getting through some of my pile of Fiji photos and I love these three of my older boys hanging out together. At home they also often hang out but in a group with friends or with their girlfriends on double (or triple) dates. On holiday it was lovely to see them bonding together and enjoying each others company without any other distractions.
I sprayed my background cardstock with three different blue spray inks, using the leaf mask with my last layer. I blotted some of the dark blue ink and added stamped circles. My papers are from the Graphic 45 'Tropical Travelogue' collection. These papers are ideal for summer, tropical or pool photos. I fuusy cut some leaves and flowers and added a few clusters of interesting elements (as I love to do!). I completed my page with rub-ons, journaling strips and a sticker title.

These are the Days to Remember

2012-01-28T23:28:00.000-08:00

My boys are all soccer crazy. In winter they play on separate teams according to their age and skill levels, but in summer they all play on the same fun team with their best mates. These games are the highlight of their week and even at 21, 19 and 17 they are happiest when all their family and friends come along to watch. We love these Wednesday evenings, picnicking on the grass and watching the game. This week one of the boys friends, Caitlin, took some photos of the action and I have chosen four of my favourites for this page.
I was inspired by one of my favourite scrapbook artists, Georgia Keays, to mat all my photos and elements in black cardstock to get a really masculine feel to my page - no soft edges for these tough lads :) Having said that some of the paper that I chose is from the Cosmo Cricket ' Clementine' range. This collection could not be more girlie, brimming over with flowers, leaves and sewing memorabilia. The colours were perfect to complement the boys soccer strip and I only chose relatively gender-neutral papers :) I added a visual triangle of clustered elements to my layout (a great way to use up those tads and stickers that you have had for ages and don't know what to do with) and completed the page with a longish title and handwritten journaling. The current word challenge at 'Bird is the Word' is 'remember' so this page is my take on this challenge.

and He Said 'Surprise, Guess who?'

2012-01-26T18:00:00.000-08:00

When I saw the main photo in this LO I new that it had to be scrapped. My little man sneaked up behind his sister (who is posing beautifully for a photo) and threw a whole handful of leaves into her hair! The look on his face is priceless.
The sketch that this page is based on came from a cool challenge site that I recently stumbled across called 'Frosted Designs'. I used a mix of my OA papers and glimmer mist to make my background. The flower is made up from a mixture of elements that I got from Purple Pumpkin and the date and time tags are made by Tanya Leigh designs. I used a couple of Purple Pumpkin tickets as a base for part of my title, to help it 'pop'.

Our little Artist

2012-01-25T18:46:00.000-08:00

Benli had so much fun with the paints the other day. I have not really done any painting with him before but the weather was so awful and Sophie was painting her canvas that she had for Xmas. He loved putting dollops of paint (predominently yellow) onto his brush and very carefully rubbing it into the paper. The sketch at 'Stuck' for January 1st is a multi photo sketch which was perfect for what I had in mind for these photos. I went to town with the yellow paint in the background and added a little teal for contrast. Finally i dribbled some grey ink over the paint and let it run down the page.
I grounded my photos with a few strips of OA "Farmhouse' paper and completed the page with a few clusters of flowers, tags and words and a sticker title. I think that the finished effect complements that cheeky grin just perfectly!

Just Us

2012-01-24T18:11:00.000-08:00

I don't have many nice recent photos of myself with my oldest boys - they usually prefer to pose with their girlfriends lol. Last week we were on a family holiday and I got my daughter to snap these photos of us having fun together playing cards on the pool deck. The current color combo over at 'The color room' was great for these outdoor shots. My base paper is from my Prima ledger stack. I built up the layers on it with ink sprays, stamps, paint and rub-ons. The scraps of paper that I used were left over bits from my OA 'Farmhouse' collection (great way to use up those scraps that you just can't part with!).

On Fiji Time

2012-01-22T17:41:00.000-08:00

The current challenge at Once Upon a Sketch is to combine their awesome sketch with journaling about what you are most looking forward to in 2012 or what you loved most (or hated) about 2011. For our family the highlight of 2012 was our family trip to Fiji. I wanted to record how special that time was to me and how grateful i felt to have all my kids together for a week in paradise.
I used a Bo bunny clock shaped background cardstock to match my title 'On Fiji time'. I mounted this on to plain black cardstock so that my colours would really 'pop'. The rest of my papers are from Graphic 45's 'Tropical travelogue' collection. This collections are perfect for summer/tropical holidays. The beautiful chipboard dragonfly is 'Scrapware' and the blue flower from 'Purple pumpkin' (I removed the small blue button that was initially at its centre and replaced it with a much larger yellow button. The blue button looked perfect between the dragonfly's wings). I printed out my journalling on strips of paper and added a title and some tag stickers to complete the page.

Love your Summer Braids

2012-01-20T22:16:00.000-08:00

This page is based on the current sketch over at Purple Pumpkin. Again I have used Nikki Sivils papers as they are perfect for the whimsical feeling that I wanted for this LO. The photo of Sophie was taken on holiday in Omapere. She loves wear her hair braided in summer so that it stays out of her eyes in the sand and sea. On this day her sister Natalie insisted on practicing her french braiding skills and she did a very good job!

Your New Hat

2012-01-19T18:47:00.000-08:00

This is my take on the My Minds Eye challenge this month. The challenge was to use the theme 'new' on your page and to use this months sketch.

I usually try to include more than one photo on my pages (because I have so many to scrap!) but occasionally I get one photo that I love so much it deserves a page of its own. That is what I felt about this cute shot of Benji wearing his new trilby hat. I love the smile on his cute little face and the sparkle in his eyes. And that hat, well it is just too cute for words :)
I used a mix of old and recent MME products for this one. I made the three circle features by spraying 'Mr Huey's' spray ink over handmade masks - two doilies and a cake tin base:) I really love the effect that this gives.

Playtime in Fiji

2012-01-18T18:15:00.000-08:00

I have recently bought a couple of new circle punches and I have wanted to try out this tecnique of punching out circles in my cardstock and overlaying the punched layer above a base layer so that the designs beneath are 'frames' in the circles above. I used OA 'Sidewalk' papers and punched out the cute designs of children playing. I then punched clusters of different sized circles from around the border of my kraft cardstock, layered the kraft cardstock over black cardstock and matched my punched out designs to the circle 'windows' that I had created. The photo that I chose of Benji and Sophie playing on the mini-golf course in Fiji was perfect for this page as the tyre that the kids are peeping through reinforces my circular design.

I based the page on the current sketch over at the 'Stuck' challenge blog.

If only every day could be this Good!

2012-01-17T16:31:00.000-08:00

This is my take on the very first sketch challenge of 2012 from Get Picky (one of my very favourlte challenge sites). Shortly before Little Shop of Sketches closed down I received a big pack of goodies from one of their sponsors Nikki Sivils (thanks Nikki!). Unfortunately as a member of the Little Shop design team I was unable to use the product before the site closed. I have used some of my Nikki Sivils product for this page. If you are not familiar with Nikki Sivils her designs are really adorable - they remind me of October Afternoon, Sassafrass Lass and Bam Pop. Check out the web site and Nikkis blog for her current collections.
Anyway, I have used the Max and Mollie collection (with a little OA Sidewalk) to make this page. The bright colours and cheery designs are perfect for childrens pages. The photos of my girls were taken this week at Omapere beach and the title just popped into my head as I was looking at them.

Winter woolies

2012-01-16T01:08:00.000-08:00

Well, we have just arrived home from our annual family vacation - literally an hour ago! The weather here in NZ this summer has been really wet and we had a lot of rain. So it was not too hard for me to think of winter as was the theme for this challenge at Another Freakin Scrappy Challenge. I had only limited supplies with me on holiday so i didn't have much to work from for this page. I initially wanted to use the coloured version of these photos but I did not have any papers to match the bright blue and red of Benjis clothes. So, I converted them to Sepia and got to work with my spray ink and 'farmhouse' papers. The DT brief was to use this sketch

and to make a LO about winter, children playing in the snow, winter scenes etc. I flipped the sketch and rearranged some of the elements to fit my design.
Have a look at the other design team pages at AFSC they are really awesome! Why not have a go at this one yourself. there are prizes to be won a guest DT spots up for grabs :)

Wonder, fun and more than a little fear!

2012-01-04T19:36:00.000-08:00

I took these photos at the reptile park that we visited in Fiji. They were amongst my favourite photos from our trip because the reaction of the kids to the various creepy crawlies that they me is written all over their faces! Chris, our eldest was plain terrified of the snakes, and only held one under extreme duress! Adam, loves reptiles and was intrigued by them. Jaime, Natalie and Sophie were all interested and a little wary, but enjoyed the experience of being so close to creatures that they would normally hope to never encounter. little Benji would not have anything to do with the snakes but was happy to hold the iguanas.
I needed to design my page to take 6 photos because I wanted to compare each of my kids reactions on one page. I printed all the photos to 3x4" as I wanted equal attention to be focused on each one. I kept the rest of the page quite simple so as not to overshaddow the images. I used plain white cardstock for the background (as I usually do for most of my pages). I splashed some inks randomly around and interspersed my photos with tage and borders taken from Graphic 45's Tropical Encounter collection. I chose a longish, fun title to match the mood of my page. The word 'wonder' is the current challenge word at 'Bird is the Word' and this fitted my title perfectly. The wacky chipboard tree and frog completed the page.

Countdown to 2012

2012-01-03T22:30:00.000-08:00

I have been trying to get a bit of scrapping done this week before we go off on our summer holiday. This week the theme at 'Once Upon a Sketch' is to journal about your New Years Eve memories. These photos were mostly taken using my i-phone and the quality is not great so I made a collage from them and printed them out in a smaller size that i would normally. I love how i am able to fit 6 photos into a 6x8" area and record more of the little details that made up our family's New Years Eve.
My papers are again the wonderful October Afternoon 'Farmhouse' range and the clock is from 'Twiddlybitz' and has been in my stash for ages waiting for the 'right' LO. this one was perfect. I rubbed gold metallic paste onto it to give it a metallic look. Scotty Crafy sell trays of metallic pastes in different colours for around $13.50. I have used and used mine! They are a very quick and easy way to give any element a metallic look. The gorgeous Prima flower was the finishing touch. i needed to add a lot of journaling to this page so i wrote it on a journaling card and tucked it behind the flower and photo collage.

Try out this at Another Freaking Scrappy Challenge

2012-01-03T12:47:00.000-08:00

OK The challenge is to scrap a favourite Christmas memory from your own childhood. Now I find it easy to scrap about my kids but to do a page about my own past is always a challenge. i don't have too many photos as my parents weren't big on photography, but I did find this one stashed away. My mum and I were looking at the candy stocking that santa had bought for me. I am already tucking into a big stick of 'rock' candy. Now my mum hated rock candy because she said that it was so bad for my teeth and I can almost hear her trying to persuade me to bin my prize and swap it for a nice 'healthy' chocolate bar instead lol! Not sure how successfull she was, but I don't fancy her chances. Even today I am more of a lolly person that a chocolate lover.
I used my OA Xmas papers and lots of spray ink. The cute doilies are from the awesome Purple pumpkin and the chippie trees are from my older stash (I think they are Kaisercraft, but I'm not sure).
Have a look at the other design team members layouts over at AFSC, and have a go at this one yourself if you have time. I always feel good when I have another memory from years past recorded safely.

The first day of 2012

2012-01-02T19:57:00.000-08:00

Here is my first LO of 2012! Mark took the family photos as we went for a walk along Takapuna beach. We were playing 1,2,3 with Benji to get him to follow us along the sand (on three we swing him up into the air). Sophie wrote the year in the sand and signed her name to it. I took the photo with her little feet included in the frame to give the photo interest and meaning.
The current challenge at Get Picky is to journal about your feelings and goals at new year. I wrote about how I fulfilled my last years goal (to improve my fitness - I now jog 4-5 kms each morning) and that my goal for this year is to spend more quality family time just hanging out with my kids and doing things together. I used my new October Afternoon 'Farmhouse' collection for this page as the colours go well with beach photos.

First time on a Plane!

2011-12-31T20:32:00.000-08:00

With all the holiday and Xmas photos that I have taken lately I wanted to make sure that these photo of benji on his first plane flight didn't get forgotten. I think that in years to come he will love to see how cute, tiny and cheeky he looked sitting in the big plane seat next to his sister with his headphones on, enjoying every moment. The current sketch at Sketchy Thursdays was perfect for the LO that I had in mind. I made my own cloud edge templates to spray the background and make a 'sky' effect. My papers are Graphic 45 'Tropical Travelogue' collection. The colors were perfect to make my photos 'pop'. I used Benji's actual boarding pass as an accent tucked under my main photo. The cute chipboard plane is part of October Afternoon's 'Boarding Pass' collection, as are most of the stickers that I used. The curling string 'vapour trail' was the finishing touch to my page.
Happy New Year to everyone. I hope that 2012 is AMAZING for us all :)

'Twas the day After Christmas!

2011-12-30T17:35:00.000-08:00

We love to visit family friends on Boxing day. We have an afternoon of fun games, more food and lots of chatter. This year the older kids and active adults played volleyball for hours whilst the rest of us talked and watched Sophie and Benji have fun in this awesome paddling pool that was set up on the deck. Benji loved it so much that I would really like to get one for him but our friend didn't know where it had been bought from.
The December challenge at 'Show us your Stuff ' is to create a LO using the colours blue and white with a splash of red. These colours were great for my photos - though I think I used more than a 'splash' of red! As usual I had fun inking, masking and blotting over the background. My papers are a mix of OA with a touch of Studio Callico. The cool denim flower, canvass heart and red polka dot button are all from 'Purple Pumpkin'.

Love You 2 !

2011-12-27T23:10:00.000-08:00

The sketch challenge blog 'Stuck' is currently calling for designers for next year. I created this LO for the DT call. I love these photos of my girls mucking around together. They had just performed in their Xmas dance recital and were really hyped up. I snapped these photos as they 'posed' with the gorgeous flowers that Daddy had bought for them. I used some older papers from Echo Park as the basis for this page and did lots of inking and stamping on my background cardstock. The beautiful branch is from Kaisercraft. I used silver metallic paste to colour it. The black organza bow and flowers completed the layout.

Time for a Helping hand

2011-12-26T19:02:00.000-08:00

This was one of my favourite photos from this Xmas day! Little Benji carried that fat, heavy cat all the way home from the school pool (where she had followed us) because he was convinced that she was 'vewy tired'. We could not believe that he managed to carry her about 250m without dropping her (and equally amazing was that she let him!).
The colours of my new October Afternoon 'Farmhouse' papers matched these photos exactly and I was sooo keen to break into them. I used my handcut starburst template for the background and did a little bit of random machine stitching to add interest. The cute chipboard hands are from Scrapware and complemented my title well. The word 'Time' is one of the current inspiration words at 'Bird is the Word' so I entered this one in their challenge.
Hope you all had a great Christmas with your families and friends and that 2012 will be a great year :)))

Gingerbread house

2011-12-22T12:04:00.000-08:00

I almost forgot to share this one. It is for the current challenge at "Another Freaking Scrappy Challenge". We were asked to create a page about our favourite Christmas recipie using this sketch.

Well I thought that it was a good opportunity to get out my Prima brick template and texture paste to make some 'bricks' for my background. When the paste was dry I sprayed over the ares with red spray ink and was pleased to find that the texture paste took up the colour more than the surrounding cardstock resulting in

a cool red brick effect. My papers are from October Afternoon's 'Modern Homemaker' collection which is perfect for photos of domestic bliss!!! Over the last couple of years making a gingerbread house during advent has become a family tradition that we all look forward too. Ofcourse we don't actually make the gingerbread - K-mart sell a very nice kit house :)

If you have time during this busy, busy season why not try this challenge yourself over at AFSC (http://another-freaking-scrappy-challenge.blogspot.com/). The other design team members have some really cool takes to get your creative juices flowing too.

That Cheeky Grin

2011-12-21T20:23:00.000-08:00

I don't very often scrap single photo LOs these days (as I have so many photos to scrap). Yet when I saw this one I knew that I wanted it to stand alone so that it would truly be the focus of the layout. Benji looks so adorable and the picture reflects his personality right now so perfectly. I took the snapshot in our kitchen because he had put on his big brother's tennis sweat band and it was just one of those lucky shots that occasionally happen when the moment in time is caught perfectly.
I used my October Afternoon 'Sidewalk' papers for this page because the colours and designs really reflected what the photo 'said' to me. The cute chippie stars and vehicles are from 'Bella' and have been in my stash for ages. They fitted onto this page well and I finally got to use them up (well almost). The design is based on the current sketch over at 'Purple Pumpkin'.

What a difference 8 days make!

2011-12-20T17:46:00.000-08:00

These two photos were taken 8 days apart. The first was taken on the day that we arrived in Fiji and the second as we were leaving the Warwick resort to fly home. You can certainly tell that we have spent a week in the sun- despite relegiously slathering on the sunblock regularly.
I used the sketch at 'Stuck' for this page. My papers are all October Afternoons Xmas collection (thanks again Adrienne and Scotty Craft!). I really love these papers! They are so bright and fun. There are also lots of fun designs to punch, cut and layer to make your own die-cuts (as I have done with all the circle elements on my page).

We'll be home for Xmas

2011-12-18T18:13:00.000-08:00

The current challenge at Once Upon a Sketch is to write about where you will spend Christmas day. This year our family spent the first week in December in Fiji and we were all very sad when our long anticipated holiday came to an end. Yet, when we all thought about it we decided that being home together at Xmas wasn't all that bad - infact that was where we would all want to be anyway. Even little Sophie (who cried buckets as we were leaving) said that she was glad that we would be at home on Christmas day because Santa would be able to find her easily :)
This page is based on the cool sketch at Once Upon a Sketch. I used my new October Afternoon Christmas collection and my new October Afternoon 'Sprinkler' spray inks along with heaps of fussy cutting and layering. The background makes use of my Prima brick stamp and Prima brick template. i love how a little stamping around the photos helps to make them really 'pop'.

An Early Morning Walk in Fiji

2011-12-17T00:09:00.000-08:00

Looking at these photos makes me wish that we were still in Fiji - especially with the dreadful weather that we are having in Auckland right now! During our holiday Mark and I would take the little kids out for a walk each morning leaving the teenagers to have a lie in. These walks were amongst my favourite memories of our trip. We fed the fish with breadcrumbs, looked for sea snakes (and saw several!), and chased Benji and Sophie along the sand. The current sketch at Get Picky was perfect for these photos. I used my October Afternoon 'Sidewalk' papers for this page as the happy, sunny colours are exactly what I needed. I sprayed the background with 3 colours of ink using a hand-cut starburst mask to create the pattern. I added a bit of extra definition to the background around my photos by stamping a cross hatch pattern.

A Visit to Santa!

2011-12-16T00:16:00.000-08:00

A few days ago I took Benji and Sophie to the mall to meet my fabulous friend Els and her cute little grandson Baxter. We planned to have morning tea together and take the little ones to see Santa. Well that is exactly what we did and we had such a fun time! All 8 of the photos on my LO (and a whole lot more) were taken by Els and I just loved every one of them. The sketch at Sketchy Thursdays this week was just so perfect for this page because it alowed me to scrap 8 photos without resorting to a double page LO (which is usually the last resort for me).
The papers I used are October Afternoon's new Christmas collection. Adrienne at Scotty Craft managed to get hold of them for me (thankyou soooooo much Adrienne!!!) and I picked them up yesterday. If you haven't chosen your Xmas papers for this year do take a look at these ones because they are just gorgeous. They are bright, fun, versatile and very 'October Afternoon'. The great thing about October Afternoon's collections is that they do seem to co-ordinate well with each other so that I can see that I will be able to use many of these Xmas themed papers with my other OA papers to scrap non-holiday related pages. I had a lot of fun spraying my background, machine stitching around my 'tree' of photos and fussy cutting elements from the papers to layer on my page. The little squares (presents) around the bottom of my 'tree' are scrapware chipboard.

Trimming the Tree

2011-12-15T12:41:00.000-08:00

I really love the MME Christmas collections this year, and when i saw the December sketch challenge at the MME blog I had to give it a go. These photos were taken as we put up our trees last week. We always have a fun time decorating - the girls get stuck in with no encouragement and the older boys generally pitch in too. We play Christmas music and eat lots of chocolate and festive treats!
I used the cute MME background paper just as it was, and arranged my design within it. I don't often use a whole sheet of paper without cutting into it but this was too adorable to cut and perfect just as it was. I did distress the edges and back the paper onto Kraft cardstock. I dry brushed green paint around the edges of the cardstock to add a splash of colour and to frame the MME background paper. The MME title card was perfect for this page and fitted in with the theme. All that was left to do then was to add some cute embellishments. I die-cut two chipboard hearts and covered one with patterned paper and the other with gold rub -on paste. I adhered them together and topped them with a cute MME charm. The little lanterns are from Prima. I lightly rubbed gold paste over them to highlight the markings and to dull down their bright white colour.

Crazy boys!

2011-12-14T16:35:00.000-08:00

I snapped these two photos of my eldest and youngest sons at my daughter's dance concert this weekend. Even though they are separated by 19 years they share so many traits and characteristics. They are both really easy going, funny, affectionate characters who find it hard to take anything seriously.
I used my October Afternoon papers and the current sketch over at 'Stuck' for this one. This sketch appealed to me as it was such a fun look. The cute geese on the Sidewalk sticker sheet inspired my title :)

Month 33 (Already!!!!)

2011-12-12T21:31:00.000-08:00

Another one for Benji's month by month album. I can't believe how fast the months are flying by! I took these photos in Fiji. We had just bought him the little fijian shirt and he was happy to pose fo a few photos (and chatter away at the same time ofcourse!). The journaling is about how he always says that he 'loves' or he 'doesn't love' things (the word 'like' is not in his vocabulary) - so cute! The LO is based on this weeks 'Sketchy Thursdays' sketch. I used a mix of Graphic 45 and Bo Bunny papers and kept to a neutral palate to match Benji's shirt - with a touch of blue to highlight his eyes. I used a prima brick mask to spray the background and then stamped over the sprayed area with my brick stamp.

Coconut mania in Fiji :)

2011-12-09T16:43:00.000-08:00

This is my page for the December PAB at Prima. Here is the sketch on which it is based.

It is a fantastic sketch with so much potential! I love these photos of Benji and Sophie posing with the coconuts that they found as we had an early morning walk along the beach in Fiji. They were both absolutely facinated by them. Sophie was lucky enough to fine two or three edible ones and the Fijian guys in the activity office were more than happy to open them for her. Unfortunately she didn't like the taste at all and thought that the coconut milk was 'disgusting!'.Benji heartily agreed with her - not the sort of milk he likes!
I used a selection of older and new 'Prima' papers, including 'Londonderry', 'ledger stack' and 'Jack and Jill'. Instead of adding a banner under the photos as the sketch suggests I ripped and distressed strips of patterned paper to resemble waves on the beach.

Fijian Firewalkers

2011-12-07T19:06:00.000-08:00

The Fijian fire walkers are amazing! They walk over white hot stones with their bare feet, singing and chanting. We were all totally mesmerised. The sketch at Sketchy thursdays this week was perfect for the LO that I had in my mind.

I wanted to use a large focal photo of one of the magnificent firewalkers and also have a few supporting photos around it. As my photos are quite busy I did not want to print them too small. I used Graphic 45's Tropical Travelogue collection (new in at Scotty Craft). This collection is perfect if you have holiday photos from one of the Islands. The colours are bright - but not overwhelming and blend in perfectly with my photos.

Christmas time in Fiji

2011-12-06T17:37:00.000-08:00

When I saw this Graphic 45 paper collection at Scotty Craft I knew that it would be perfect to scrap some of the 1000 photos that I took in Fiji last week. The challenge at Once Upon a sketch is to write at least 2 sentences about what you look forward to in December and, ofcourse, use the current sketch for inspiration.

When December arrived this year we were in Fiji. The Warwick resort had been decorated overnight and looked amazing. Sophie and Benji even got to put some baubles on the Xmas tree in the dining room. It was so special welcoming in the Christmas season in such a beautiful place with all of our family. A truly unforgettable time.
I thought that the Graphic 45 background paper looked like a tropical version of holly leaves. I used a mix of Kaisercraft Xmas paper and the Graphic 45 holiday themed papers for this page. The chipboard 'tree' is Scrapware and I thought it looked a little bit 'arty' and matched my tropical theme better than a traditional pine tree would have done :)

Bedtime Stories

2011-12-04T19:13:00.000-08:00

'Get picky' is one of my favourite challenge blogs because you have to do multiphoto pages to enter their challenges and most of my layouts incorporate more than one photo. The inspiration challenge right now is a picture of flying books. My first thought was of time flying and I was planning to do a page about how quickly our kids grow up. But as I was flicking through our recent Fiji trip photos I came accross these. I thought how cool it was that no matter where in the world we might be our little family traditions remain the same. Even after a hard day playing in the pool and on the beach in Fiji Benji still needed a bedtime story before settling down to sleep. Big sister natalie was more than willing to read him one. I sprayed my background with 'custard' Mr Hueys spray ink using a sheet of sequin waste as a mask. Then I built up layers of paper (various offcuts from my numerous October Afternoon collections), die-cuts, punched shapes and stickers to mat my photos. I inked everything and doodled around most of my edges with a black gel pen. The final result is very bright and vibrant - like the stories that my children love to read.

Time for another challenge!

2011-12-03T16:56:00.000-08:00

The new challenge is up over at Another Freakin Scrappy Challenge. The idea is to create a page about something that you are thankful for with out using the colour orange !
I love these photos of my eldest and youngest sons having fun together. They both look so completely and utterly happy and carefree. Benji is launching himself off the kitchen counter into his brothers arms. I love the way that Chris is taller than Benji even when he is standing up on the bench! I really, really love the expression on Chris's face as he catches his baby brother.
I used lots of bright paint on the background and October Afternoon's 'Sidewalk' papers. I used a Kaisercraft 'bubble wrap' stamp to add interest to the background painted area. The twine emphasises the photos and draws the eye to the focus of the page.
Head over to AFSC and look at the fantastic LOs done by the other DT members and have a go at this challenge yourself. There are prises and guest design spots to be won :)

OMGosh look at these photos :)

2011-11-27T17:31:00.000-08:00

Yep thats a real boa that the kids are holding and real iguanas too :) Chris has a real phobia of snakes as you can see in his face - he did overcome his fear though and enjoyed the experience in the end. Adam loves all reptiles and couldn't get enough of the snakes. Jaime, Natalie and Sophie all held the snakes and iguanas with varying degrees of comfort. little Benji liked the iguana (so long as it held completely still in his hands) but would not come within spitting distance of the snake! Actually he dropped the iguana pretty smartly as soon as it started to move up his arms lol :)
Now incase you think that I chickened out on the experience check this out!

Yep, thats me holding a real live Pacific boa - and loving the experience too I may add.

Look Where we are this Week!!!

2011-11-27T10:40:00.000-08:00

Beautiful Fiji! We are having the best time at the amaziing Warwick resort on the coral coast. The girls have had their hair braided and beaded (Sophie's dream fo 5 years!). We have spent our days swimming, eating and strolling along the beautiful beaches. The marine life is out of this world and the snorkelling is amazing!! I have taken over 600 photos already and we are only half way through our holiday :) All thoses beautiful photos to scrap when I get back hehe :)

Disco time!

2011-11-22T17:49:00.000-08:00

Although it is imporatant to record the special events in our lives like birthdays, christmas and holidays it is the ordinary moments that I really love to record. This was one such moment. We were walking together to Sophie's school end of year disco and Benji and Sophie held hands and started to skip down the footpath together - Benji looking back every few skips to check that I was following. At the disco Sophie and her little friends treated benji like a life-sized doll. They danced in circles around him, fed him chippies, carried him from one side of the hall to the other and even got him doing the 'limbo' dance. It was such a lovely evening.
I used the sketch at 'Stuck' for this page - it is an a4 sketch so I adapted it for my 12x12 layout. My base paper is Prima and the rest is October Afternoon. I added paint and spray inks to my background to add interest and texture. I couldn't resist attaching the little balloon to Benji's outstretched hand by loops of string :)

Sophie's Wearable arts parade :)

2011-11-20T14:10:00.000-08:00

I made this page a few weeks ago for 'Little Shop of Sketches'. Sadly that challenge blog had to close down so I am sharing this page now. Last month Sophie's school put on a wearable art parade. Each class had to make costumes based on a country that they were assigned. Sophies class were Japan and they had a lot of fun making these colourful costumes. I couldn't chose which photos to include so I made a big cluster of various sized photos in the centre of my page and layered patterned paper underneath (mostly OA Modern Homemaker) The background base paper is a sheet from Studio Callico which I really love. I have used the same sheet several times for backgrounds as the newsprint art makes an interesting base onto which to build up a page. I tore away the corners of my backing sheet and layered the page onto craft cardstock which I had sprayed with red ink over a Crafter's Workshop template to get the butterfly pattern.

Terrific Two!!

2011-11-19T17:02:00.000-08:00

From my experience my own children I have always found that two is no-where near as bad as its cut out to be. Infact I think that three is way more challenging. Our little Benji is just adorable at 2 1/2. Yes, he does have his moments of stubborn, negative behaviour, but the cute, charming, affectionate times far outweigh the not so good times!
The sketch at get picky this week is based on oval shapes. When I found these photos of benji just having fun in the garden in his oval-shaped hoop swing I thought that they would be perfect. I used bright yellow acryllic paint and Mr Huey's 'custard' spray inks on my white cardstock background. I stamped over the painted areas with my Kaisercraft grid lines stamp. Then I went to work layering strips of OA 'Sidewalk' paper underneath my photos. I added some clusters of circle shapes around the photos and completd the page with my title and journaling. The 'two' sticker has been in my stash since my now 7-year old daughter was 2. Just goes to show that it is possible to use up some of those older items in your stash that you can't believe you once thought were cool lol!!!

A not so scary Halloween!

2011-11-18T20:19:00.000-08:00

Each Halloween our whole family gets dressed up and goes out trick or treating together. I feel so happy that the teenagers still love to get into the spirit of things and want to help make the evening special for the little ones. This year only my 17 year old son adam and his girlfriend Isabel looked really scary. They are both talented artists and painted each others faces. The result was quite stunning - and very freaky!!! The rest of us were a lot less scary and Sophie insisted on dressing up in her new fairy drress (that she had for her birthday) and going out as a fairy princess.
I based my LO on the current Sketchy thursdays sketch. I used a lot of paint and red ink for the background. My base paper was actually from a school themed collection but it seemed to be perfect for this page too. I used my Prima brick stamp (which I am a bit obsessed with at present) to add detail to the background and the rest of my papers are from Pink Paislee and My Minds Eye halloween collections (a lot of which I already had in my stash). The loops of string and button details complete the page nicely.

My Sweet little girl

2011-11-17T11:31:00.000-08:00

This page is based on the new sketch and challenge at Once Upon a Sketch. The challenge was to make a page about what is great about being a girl. My little daughter Sophie is the girliest little girl imaginable. I asked her what she liked best about being a girl and without missing a beat she said 'long hair and pretty dresses'! I used the Clementine papers from Cosmo Cricket for this LO. I love the ultra feminine colours and they complemented the sweet photos of Sophie and her little brother perfectly. I handmade the flower from silk ribbon dyed with Tim Holtz distress stains. The cute little birdhouse is a resin from 'Prima'.

Halloween fun

2011-11-16T19:43:00.000-08:00

We had a lot of fun at Halloween this year. The whole family dressed up and we went trick or treating together. Adam and his girlfriend Isabel painted each others faces so amazingly well that I had to do a page for them and here it is. I used the sketch at 'Show us your Stuff' as a base for my page and totally went to town with distressing and embellishing. I love these Londonderry papers from 'Prima'. They are great if you want to achieve a vintage 'Victorian' style page. The fabulous streetlight is from the equally fabulous 'scrapware'.

Check out the new Challenge over at Another freaking Scrappy Challenge

2011-11-16T19:28:00.000-08:00

The challenge is to scrap a page about a favourite book using this weeks sketch. My daughter recently read the Hunger Games series and could not stop talking about it. When I read the first chapter of the first book I was hooked. The base of my Design Team LO is black cardstock over which I have sprayed Calico White "Mr Huey's" spray ink through a Crafters Workshop 'chickenwire' template. I layered my photos over my papers and added the Prima branch under the photos. I used corrugated cardboard to make the heart and complemented this with corrugated title letters. Journaling strips completed the look.
Why not have a try at this one yourself. There are prizes to be won and a lot of fun to be had along the way.

First Day of 4th form

2011-11-15T17:47:00.000-08:00

Since natalie will be finishing her 4th form year in a couple of weeks I thought I'd beter get this one scrapped and into her album. I incorporated the challenge over at Scrap-it-Lah (from the amazingly talented Debbi Tehrani) into this page. Debbi's challenge was to:

1.Incorporate layers - at least 6 (easy for me lol )

2. Stamping and/or embossing (I stamped black paint circles using a bottle cap)

3. Tags or journaling cards incorporated into your design (I used the co-ordinating OA Sidewalk journaling card)

My background paper is again from the very versitile Prima ledger stack. The rest of the paper and embellies are OA 'Sidewalk'. This range is so versatile. I have used it for teens, school theme, little boy, little girl and family pages so far!

A Bit of early Festive Cheer!!

2011-11-14T11:33:00.000-08:00

For my design team projects at Scotty Craft this month I received the Tim Holtz Christmas themed resist paper collection and some Webster's pages Xmas papers to play with. I have not given much thought to Christmas yet, so I thought that this was an excellent opportunity for a Christmas Card photoshoot on the beach. Into the car went the kids (well those who were not too old and 'cool' to be seen wearing Santa hats in public in October) and off to the beach we drove. An hour or two later I had some cute photos to scrap and the kids were enjoying their ice-cream bribes :)

For my first LO I used Tim Holtz distress stain to heavily ink around the edges of the TH paper that I chose for the background. I left the area around my photos un-inked. This eneabled the resist pattern to be seen around the borders of the LO and the photo block to stand out from the middle. I arranged squares of Webster's pages paperunderneath the photos and cut out some holly, flowers and a bird from the paper to use as embellishments. I added a MME 'Lost and Found' label as my title and completed the main part of my page with a Tim Holtz ticket strip, some Xmas twine and a couple of wooden butterflies. I added Sophie's name and the date along with a small cluster of paper scraps to the upper right edge of the page to balance it out.

For my second LO I again inked the base TH resist paper. This time I used spray ink to the upper and lower edges of the paper. I chose a co-ordinating sheet of Websters Pages (the music paper) and adhered it on top of my TH background paper having first torn away a generous portion of the upper right and bottom left corners of the music sheet (as above) and heavily inked and distressed all edges. I adhered a 12x3" sheet of contrasting Webster's paper across the LO to ground the photos and layered the scrapware chipboard circle border above this strip. I filled in the chipboard circles with Xmas themed paper scraps. I added my photos, journaling card, embellishments and flowers to complete the page.

All the products for my LOs can be found at Scottie Crafts and the LOs are in store if you would like a closer look. Why not make an early start on those Christmas projects - It'll feel so good having Christmas all wrapped up well in advance of the big day - not to mention the fun you will have playing with all that yummy Xmas product :)

My Soccer Boys :)

2011-11-13T19:43:00.000-08:00

Here is my take on this weeks Sketchy Thursdays sketch. I did a page about my girls (see below a couple of posts back) and this is my equivalent 'boy' page.
I got the inspiration from seeing my little 2-year old dressed up in his england soccer strip. Since all my boys are soccer crazy I thought that it would be really cool to do a page with all the boys dressed in their soccer strips. This weeks sketch from Sketchy Thursdays was perfect because it has four photos incorporated in the design. Once again I used my amazing OA 'Sidewalk' papers. They are so bright and versatile and match almost any kid-related theme. First I swiped my background paper (from my Prima ledger stack) with blue acrylic paint roughly around where I planned to place my photos. Then I stamped on a couple of circles using a cup rim and my black paint dauber. I used the Sidewalk 'Jump Rope' border paper to cut strips to layer behind my photo cluster, then I added various stickers and embellishments in tiny clusters around my page's main focus. A small collection of embellishments in the upper right corner along with the title balances out the layout.

Another page for benji's Month by Month Album

2011-11-13T12:10:00.000-08:00

How those months fly by! I can't believe this precious little man has been part of our lives for over 2 1/2 years, yet on the other hand I can't imagine life without him! I based this page for his month by month album on the current sketch at 'Stuck' (another cool challenge blog that I came across recently). I am really loving the colour yellow at the moment - I think it reminds me that summer is just around the corner! I used Mr Huey's 'Custard' spray ink to get the gorgeous golden yellow background colour. I wanted to use my Scrapware circles on this page but found that I had none left :( so I improvised by stamping circles on my background with a black paint dauber and jar lid. I love the look and will definitely be using that trick again.
I layered on my 'OA Sidewalk' papers and as I wanted to incorporate a lot of journalliing I typed it and cut it into strips which I adhered along the right hand border of my page. I think I may have added too many journaling strips for the design, but, hey, the story is the reason that I love to scrap and I really didn't want to miss out any of these cute little Benji-phrases that made us smile over the last month.

An 'arty' style background

2011-11-11T20:09:00.000-08:00

This is my page for the Sketchy Thursdays guest DT challenge this month. I really had fun with the background on this one. I used lots of texture paste, spray inks, acryllic paint and mesh to make my own 'arty' style background. There really are no rules to this - except use enough texture paste to stick on the mesh. I made the dandelion clocks by generously applying texture paste to a crafters workshop template and waiting for it to harden before removing the template. My papers are Crate Paper and Studio Callico and the chippie kite is from Scrapware (all available at Scotty Craft).
The design of my page is based on the Sketchy Thursdays GDT sketch and the theme "Gratitiude" also comes directly from their challenge.

My New Favourite :)

2011-11-10T16:14:00.000-08:00

Since sadly I didn't make the Prima Roadshow (I was unable to get babysitters for Sophie and Benji fro the day ) I treated myself to some new Prima papers and embellies. I love this page - I love the colours of the Londonderry papers and the cute 'gate' and 'birdhouse' embellishments. I adore these two photos of benji making his wish at the wishing well at Sophie's Ivy Cottage birthday party. The theme was 'fairies' and he wanted to dress up to - check out the tiny little wings that he is wearing sooooo cute ;) I converted the photos to Sepia to match my papers and went to town with distressing and fussy cutting. I scrunched some white muslin and adhered it to part of my background to soften the look. The design was based on this months Prima sketch challenge.

7 Candles on her Cake

2011-11-08T13:42:00.000-08:00

Here is another page for Sophie's album. She just loved her birthday cake which her sister Natalie decorated. Since she had a fairy themed party Natalie made a fairy ring on top of the cake and topped it off with a cute little 'tinkerbel' fairy. The photos show her party 'banquet' the highlight of which was the blowing out of the candles (which took several attempts!).
I used the color palate over at the color room this week and ofcourse it was another great excuse to use my 'sidewalk' papers :) I handmade the flower using tulle cut into a strip and rolled whilst coiling into a circle shape. I also handmade the little flag as I didn't have any left in my Sidewalk collection that matched the colrs that I used.

Young love - so beautiful!

2011-11-06T19:52:00.000-08:00

As soon as I snapped this photo I knew that I had captured a very special moment. The look on Jaime's face is priceless. These two are such a beautiful couple both inside and out and I wanted to make a special page for Jaime's album to reflect this. I based the LO on the November sketch at the MME blog.

The papers that I used are from the awesome Lost and Found collection. I changed my photo to black and white so that I could enjoy using the warm yellows without my colours clashing. I added scallopped lace for the scallopped border element on the sketch, and a little Tim Holtz tissue tape to make the lace 'pop'. I swapped the position of my title to the bottom right edge as it seemed to work better there to balance out the patterned paper design in the upper left corner. A few little punched hearts seemed like the right finishing touch considering the subject of the page :)

The new word over at bird is the Word is 'Adore' so I have entered this one over there too. Their DT have made some amazing pages so do go over and take a look - heaps of inspiration to be had :)

Sophie's Fairy Party :)

2011-11-06T01:52:00.000-07:00

Sophie celebrated her 7th birthday this Friday at the beautiful Ivy Cottage with 10 other little fairies and a pixie (Benji). She had a magical time and enjoyed every second. She fell in love with fairy Serena (the lady in charge of her party) and the look of wonder on her face as she made her fairy wishes, listened spellbound to fairy stories and hunted for fairy treasure was priceless. I took about 100 photos and these are two are Sophies favourite (the main photo) and mine (the smaller photo where all the little girls are sitting in a fairy circle with their eyes closed making their wish).
My October Afternoon 'Sidewalk' papers really capture the magic of childhood and work well with these photos. The design is based on this weeks sketch over at Sketchy Thursdays. I used a lot od spray ink on thhis one to change the colours of my flowers and trims to co-ordinate better with the papers. One of the things that I love about OA collections is that they are cream-based rather than white. This gives them a softer look. I used Studio Callico (Mr Huey) 'Calico Cream' spray to get my white embellishments to tone in better with my papers.

Benji learned to Pedal!!!

2011-11-04T17:47:00.000-07:00

Having two doting big sisters does tend to make a little man a bit lazy:) He really doesn't need to do much for himself as there is always someone willing and able to help him out. Up till now Benji has not shown much interest in learning to pedal his trike himself (actually it is Sophie's old trike, hence the beautiful hot pink colour!) He prefers to be pushed along by the parent handle! Well last week he finally decided to try to pedal the thing himself and after a little explaination and demonstration from Sophie (who does still fit the trike as she is such a little titch) he was off! I managed to snap a few photos before he got tired and demanded to be pushed again (sigh!!!)
Anyway, my new Sidewalk papers were perfect for the job. They even come with a cute chippie boy and bike :) The pinks perfectly matched the trike (hehe - great for his 21st) and again I used my Crafter's Workshop template to add interest to my sprayed background. The Studio Callico (Mr huey) 'custard' spray ink co-ordinates really well with this line. The design is based on the sketch over at Purple Pumpkin. It is the first time that I have submitted a page to this challenge blog - it is well worth a visit, there is some amazingly talented ladies over there :)

Another Sidewalk LO :)))

2011-11-02T20:29:00.000-07:00

Have I mentioned how much I LOVE this collection from October Afternoon?? It works so well with all types of photos and blends with most colours. Although it is quite 'girlie' I'm sure some of the papers will work well on 'boy' layout too (watch out for my next page). This photo of my girls was taken on Sophie's 7th birthday at 7am. She had just woken up Natalie and the boys so that we could start her celebration. In our family it is the tradition to have chocolate crackle cake and pressies in mum and dads bed on your birthday. We also read out a special card listing all the achievements and milestones that have occurred over the past year. Sophie couldn't wait to get started and you can see the excitement writen all over her little face. her sister just wanted time to wake up (or another hours sleep!)
This page is for Once Upon a Sketch. The challenge is to write at least two sentences on why you like to scrap as well as basing your page on their current sketch. Moments like these are exacly why I love to scrap. They would otherwise be forgotten with the passage of time and whilst I also record big milestones and events it is the everyday moments that are especially precious to me.

Time for a new Challenge at 'Another Freakin Scrappy Challenge'

2011-11-01T21:52:00.000-07:00

Time for another prompt challenge Over at Another Freaking Scrappy Challenge Blog - you have until the 30th of November to play along with this challenge and the next challenge that they will post on the 15th of this month. This month's challenge is to scrap about a belief, or philosophy you have – it can be something deep or something silly. It might be a religious or other philosophy, or something as light as your theory on how you can put two socks into the washing machine and only one ever comes back to you. Take this challenge as seriously or not as you would like to!!
So what are you waiting for there is a $25.00 gift certificate from Scrapbooking.com up for grabs.
When i saw these candid photos of my eldest and youngest children I thought of how much love they have for each other. I am sometimes asked how I manage to give all my children as much attention as the y need in a large family and whilst it is true that each child may have a little less one-on-one time with mummy in our family of 6, that is more than made up for by the attention that they receive from each other. I truly believe that as parents our love is not divided between each child, but is multiplied with each new addition. That is the message that I am trying to convey in my LO :)

Check out the October Afternoon ' Sidewalk' Collection!!

2011-11-01T17:24:00.000-07:00

I have wanted to get my sticky paws on this collection from the moment that I first saw the sneak preview on the October Afternoon blog. Yesterday I finally got hold of my precious 'Sidewalk' collection (thanks to Scotty Craft and Scrappin' Patch!) and I think that it may actually be my most favourite collection EVER!!! The colours are vibrant and the patterns are to die for!
This LO is for the Get Picky October Inspiration challenge. I love these photos of Sophie 'playing' with her new kiddie camcorder which was far and away her favourite birthday present on her 7th birthday. I sprayed the background over my new 'chicken wire' Crafter's Workshop template (available from Scotty Craft) then I went to town with my new papers. My favourite part of the October Afternoon collections are their Miscellany bags full of bits and bobs that co-ordinate with that particular collection. Sidewalk miscellany comes full of tickets, labels, cute images, buttons, ribbon, tags ...... So much fun to cluster together!

Natalie and her Dad

2011-10-31T01:40:00.000-07:00

This photo of Natalie andt Mark is not perfect by a long shot, but I really love it. They both look so happy together. I was intrigued by a challenge that I saw at Once Upon a Sketch. The idea was to scrap an embarrassing memory or quirk of a friend or loved one. This story of my husband competing in the parents race of Natalies school swim sports wearing a yogi Bear suit sprung to mind. I don't have a photo of the swim race so I used this one instead - and I think that it really works.
I used up the last of my Scrapware circles for this page - I love these so much!!! My papers are October Afternoon 'Modern Homemaker' and the background ledger page is from my 'Prima' stack. There is a lot of distressing, inking and splodging going on here - lots of fun!!!

Another Birthday Page for Sophie

2011-10-29T20:33:00.000-07:00

This page is the 'girlie' version of my skater page "I wish he'd Slow Down" below. I wanted to use the same design but see how different i could make the LO using a real girlie palate (from this weeks Color room colours). I again used scrapware chipboard as a border but this time I used a beautiful flourish instead of the squares. My papers are scraps from my Echo Park stash. I used a black paint dauber to paint the square frame around the page and machine sewed around it to add definition.

Happy 7th birthday Sophie-Kate xx

2011-10-28T20:26:00.000-07:00

My little Sophie turned 7 on Thursday. I took a stack of photos on her birthday (ofcourse). She looks totally adorable tight now as she has recently lost her two upper front teeth and has that toothless grin that is so characteristic of this age. This photo was one of my favourites as she looks so happy. The light was perfect as it was taken in the evening on the beach (she wanted to have a picnic on the beach and watch the sun set for her birthday tea). I used Pink Paislee resist paper for the background and I partially inked the area around my photo with pink distress stain. The layout is based on the current Sketchy Thursday's sketch. The other papers that I used are left-over scraps from various Sassafrass collections. I wanted the colours to be bright, fun and very girlie (just like my precious little girl). I completed the page with a bakers twine bow and a 'Thickers' title (these were originally white foam letters and I stained them with the same color of pink distress stain that I used for my background).

Boy Toys!

2011-10-28T13:06:00.000-07:00

My boys have recenty taken up skateboarding. Within a week my oldest son has broken his arm falling off his board so when I saw his brother hurtling down the street my heart was in my mouth!!! The new word this week at 'bird is the word' is 'wish' and I thought that this would make a perfect title for my page :)
The cute chipboard squares that I used for my border are 'Scrapware' and are available from Scotty Craft. They also make great frames for 'inchie' stamps and for 'grid design' backgrounds.

Waiting for the Train

2011-10-24T19:19:00.000-07:00

This weekend we too Benji and the girls up to the Whangaparoa railway and farm. Benji is obsessed with trains and he was in heaven as he waited on the platform for the little train to arrive. After he had had his rides he still wanted nothing more than to sit on the bench and watch the train doing its circuits!
The color combo at the 'Color room' this week was perfect for these photos that I took. I love the soft, but masculine palate. I used map paper as the background and lots of train embellishments from October Afternoons 'Boarding Pass' collection. I used string and brads to mimic map pointers from my title to the photos. I handwrote my journalling onto the background papers but I think it is a little hard to read and I wish I had painted over the area where I intended to journal with a little white paint beforehand. The flowers are handmade from silk ribbon dyed with Tim Holtz distress stains.

Another Ultra Girlie Page

2011-10-22T23:53:00.000-07:00

This one is for the Prima BAP challenge this month. I love these soft, feminine papers and embellishments from Prima. I wanted to make a fairy garden effect around Sophie so I used lots of flowers, bling and one of Prima's new 'resins' (the cute bird house). The chipboard toadstool and fence are both Scrapware. I machine stitched the borders and sprayed liberally with glimmer mist :)

Ballet Dreams

2011-10-21T21:26:00.000-07:00

Sophie loves to dress up in her sister's clothes so she was thrilled when Natalie suggested that she try on this tutu. Natalie outgrew the tutu a few years ago as it was her very first competition tutu that she got when she was nine. Ofcourse it was still too big for Sophie but with some pins and tape we made it fit. She spent a happy half hour dancing around the garden, twirling and jumping and saying that now she was a 'real' ballerina and when she grew up that is what she is going to be :)
I have based the LO on the current sketch over at Sketchy Thursdays. I have had the Pink Paislee resist paper in my stash for a while and this seemed to be a great opportunity to use it as I wanted to make my own shade of soft pink for the background. I used a mix of glimmer mist and distress stains to get the colour that I wanted. Sophie was thrilled with the page she said "Oh Mummy, I look so pretty", sigh!

A Very Proud Day

2011-10-21T13:41:00.000-07:00

At his end of year prizegiving my son adam received two prizes. He got the trophy for excellence in acting (he played Nathan Detroit in the school's production of Guys and Dolls) and he received a major award for all round excellence and participation in school life. Ofcourse it was a very
proud day for his mum and dad!!!
I wanted my LO to be masculine so I used a very grungy style with lots of ink and paint smears. The challenge over at Scrap-it-Lah http://scrap-it-lah.blogspot.com/ this week is from a cyber friend of mine Eila Sandburg. Her challenge is to use old book paper, sheet music or something similar, fussy-cutting and hand-stitching using embroidery floss. My papers are a mix of Kaisercraft and Bo-Bunny. I handstiched the cross-stiches along the upper and lower border - I use a lot of stitching on my pages but almost always machine stitching so I had fun doing this. If you want a challenge have a go at this one yourself. There are cool prizes up for grabs!

Bed time at Our Place

2011-10-19T17:49:00.000-07:00

I took these photos of Benji and Sophie as they were settling down for bed one evening last week!!! We have this performance every night. They really do love each others company, (read 'wind each other up') and can be complete monkeys - but oh, so cute! Over at Get Picky they are celebrating their 1st birthday with a blog hop this week. This LO is based on the current sketch that goes along with the blog hop.

The papers that I used are October Afternoon's 'Rocket Age' collection together with a few elements from the Imaginisce collection 'Animal Crackers'. I used paint mixed with glimmer mist to make the splotches and drips in the background.

Kite Flying

2011-10-17T20:49:00.000-07:00

The sketch challenge over at MME's blog this week is to create a LO with an Autumn theme based on this sketch:

I have had these photos of my girls taking Benji kite flying for the first time on my 'to do' pile since last Autumn, so this was a great excuse to get them scrapped. I used the beautiful MME 'Lost and Found' papers and embellishments. I did some fussy cutting to get the flower cluster and used my Tim Holtz die to cut the picket fence. The cute little kite is from Scrapware and the clouds are Studio Calico. This was a great sketch to work with as I was able to incorporate three 6x4 photos and plenty of journaling and embellishments without the LO looking too clustered.

Adam got his restricted!!!

2011-10-13T21:05:00.000-07:00

Congrats to Adam!!! Ofcourse I had to scrap the moment :) My page is based on this weeks sketch over at Sketchy Thursdays - although it doesn't look too much like the sketch as I kept on adding bits and pieces to it! I used October Afternoon Boarding Pass papers and lots of Scrapware chipboard. My background paper was very busy so I painted around the photo with cream crackle paint then highlighted the painted area with a metallic rub-on paste. This made my photo 'pop' from the background. I rubbed gold metallic paste onto my chipboard keys to give them a shiny, metal look. then hung them from a chain. I used the co-ordinating Boarding pass stickers to add my title and journaling.

Two Years and Seven Months

2011-10-12T13:31:00.000-07:00

Here is this months page for Benji's month-by-month album. I love this MME paper. It is perfect for my little man who LOVES trains more than anything else! I resisted the temptation to cut up the paper and used it as a whole for my background. This required some careful planning of other page elements so as not to cover up that cool train, but I think I managed to pull it off. I bought the Martha Stewart butterfly punch from Scotty Craft yesterday for my daughter and couldn't resist trying it out on this page :) I wrote my journaling on the manila tag and tucked it behing my photos as I didn't want the page to look to cluttered.

Together!

2011-10-10T21:00:00.000-07:00

When I saw that the new word at 'Bird is the Word' is 'together' I thought of this photo that I took of my son and his beautiful girlfriend on his 19th birthday this weekend. I wanted the photo to be the focus of the LO and I wanted it to have a soft feel. The scrapware frame was perfect for matting the photo and the blues, purples and yellows in my patterned paper set off the colours perfectly. I used a crafters workshop woodgrain mask to spray the background and machine stitched the random circles onto the page - they reminded me of knots in the wood of a tree. The blue papers and large cut-out roses are 'Glitz designs' vintage blue paper layers (paper layers are sold in a packs of 8 and several styles are currently available at Scotty Craft).

New Sketch for Little Shop of Sketches!

2011-10-09T14:18:00.000-07:00

This weeks sketch has lots of squares in the background - great for using up all those little scraps of patterned paper that are too nice to throw away:) I used my 6x6 'Lost and Found' pads which I am loving using at the moment! The photos are my two favourites taken of Natalie on her 15th birthday last week. Check out the LSS page http://littleshopofsketches.wordpress.com/ and see the other DT members amazing LOs and have a go yourself - there are prizes up for grabs!

The Very Best Gym Coach

2011-10-08T22:51:00.000-07:00

My son Chris has been coaching gym to after school children for a while now. It is hard to get photos of him in the gym because the light is poor, but I managed to snap these when he was taking his little sister through a warm up before her level 2 badge test. I based the layout on this weeks Sketchy Thursdays sketch. I used a Tim Holtz clock mask for the background and my papers are left-over scraps from a variety of manufacturers. I love the scrapware chipboard circle strip along the bottom. It reminded me of the rings that are part of the apparatus that Sophie uses (and Chris teaches) at the gym.

Grid Designs are so fun and easy!

2011-10-05T18:24:00.000-07:00

I have been enjoying designing with grids this week. It is a really easy way to add lots of photos to a LO without it looking too cluttered or busy.
The first LO was inspired by the centre photo which my son and his mates took as the cover for their first album one day:) - They are playing in a band together and are sounding amazing. I wanted to use the main photo as well as some other cool shots of Adam from the last few months. This grid design was perfect. I used my Bo Bunny papers and my trusty 2" square punch to make all the squares. I kept this one quite simple and geometric to enhance the masuline theme and allow the photos to take centre stage.
The second LO is of my daughters 15th birthday. I have lots of photos from the event but I wanted to make a page to show off some of my favourite photos of how she spent her special day. Again I used a grid pattern but this time more artistic and less structured. I cut the grid windows from paper scrap first. I arranged them on my white cardstock background into the grid then sprayed over the whole LO with glimmer mist. When I removed the paper rectangles the grid areas remained unsprayed. I cut my photos slightly smaller than the grid rectangles so that I could leave a white border around each photo. My papers are MME 'Lost and Found' - I used my 6x6" mini-stack to cut out the shapes that I needed. I love these mini-papers as I don't have to cut up a whole sheet of 12x12 paper when I need just a small square. I stamped the branches down the side of the LO and handwrote lots of journaling directly onto my page.

Schools out!!!

2011-10-04T18:41:00.000-07:00

This is a memory that I have wanted to scrap for a long time so last week when I took Benji to pick up his sister from school I whipped out my i-phone and took a few quick snapshots. Each afternoon is the same. He sits on the wall watching intently as the kids come out of the classrooms. As soom as he spots Sophie he runs towards her with his arm outstretched and she scoops him up for a big hug. It is such a special part of my day. I know these routines don't last for ever so I wanted to be sure that this one would never be forgotten with the passage of time. I used a sketch from the Pencil Lines blog as the basis for this LO but as usual my final page looks very little like the original sketch! The papers are from Bo-Bunnys lovely 'Welcome Home' collection, MME 'Lost and Found' and Websters pages. I machine stitched the artisan shape onto the background paper. The cute little mushrooms are Prima resins - now available at Scotty Craft.

Happy 21st Birthday to Chris

2011-10-02T18:56:00.000-07:00

My eldest son Chris celebrated his 21st at the weekend. We had a party for him with family and friends on Friday evening. I have lots of photos from the occasion to scrap but when I saw these that my daughter took as I was doing my speech for Chris I wanted to scrap them straight away. I don't often scrap photos with myself in them but I love these two as I think they really show the loving bond that we share.
The word challenge this week at 'Bird is the Word' is 'You and Me' - hence my title. Most of my products that I used for this page are Bo Bunny. I handmade the flower from satin ribon stained with distress inks. I had fun spraying my background with studio calico inks.

Celebrations over at Get Picky!

2011-10-01T14:30:00.000-07:00

I was thrilled to win the guest designer spot for this month over at Get Picky http://getpicky.blogspot.com/. The theme for the challenge is Celebtate. This is my LO. The photos of my girls jumping and dancing on the beach a few weekends ago just screamed happiness and joy at being alive. I thought they fit the theme perfectly. I used lots of misting for the background - the sunburst mask is actually cut from a plastic picnic plate (I have used it so many times since I cut it!) The papers are mainly Echo Park 'Be Mine' collecion with a few offcuts of Echo Park 'Little Girl' and Sassafrass. I made the rosette flowers usiing my Tim Holtz die. Why not pop over to Gert Picky and try the challenge yourself - you could be the next guest designer for this great challenge site :)

Check out the new challenge at Another freaking Scrappy Challenge!

2011-10-01T02:36:00.000-07:00

The challenge is to scrap a photo from your school days. This is my DT layout. I don't have too many photos of myself aas a child so this one is precious. I love that I have finally got round to scrapping it. To make the masked background I sprayed Studio Callico Cream spray ink over a sheet of laser cut alphabet paper. I love this spray ink as it really is opaque. Some other brands of whites and creams I find go colourless when dry. The rest of my LO I pieced together with bits and bobs from my stash. If you have time head over to Another Freaking Scrappy Challenge and see the fabulous examples from the other DT members (http://another-freaking-scrappy-challenge.blogspot.com/2011/09/30th-september-2011-prompt-challenge.html) and have a go at the challenge yourself.

My last LO as Guest designer for Sketchy Thursdays

2011-09-29T20:51:00.000-07:00

Here is my last LO for sketchy Thursdays. I love this photo of my two girls and the gris design was great for emphasising that special picture. My background paper is from Prima's ledger stack - these papers are awesome to use as backgrounds. The rest of my papers are from October Afternoon's 'Modern Homemaker" collection. I have my eye on the new 'Sidewalk' collection from October Afternoon. I am itching to get my hands on that one but so far no-one in NZ seems to have it.

New Challenge is up over at Little Shop of Sketches

2011-09-25T20:27:00.000-07:00

Here is my DT layout. I used MME 'Lost and Found' papers from my 6x6" minipad. I stamped the background using a bubble wrap stamp from Kaisercraft. I love the photo of Benji cuddling his special teddy bear :)

Happy 15th birthday Natalie

2011-09-24T23:10:00.000-07:00

My daughter turns 15 next week. We had her party this weekend. She wanted to take 3 friends to the teddy bear factory at Sylvia Park to make cuddly friends then have a sleep over at our place with videos and pizza. It all sounded great until she mentioned that she wanted a Perry the platypus cake (from Finneus and Ferb). Cake decorating in certainly not my forte! Well it turned into a great family project. Mark, Sophie and I (and even Benji) all chipped in and this is the final design - not too bad eh!
The colours over at The Color Room this week were great for these photos. I was inspired to use a grid design by Jenni Hufford's layout over at the October Afternoon blog. I wanted to add several small supporting photos to the main picture but I wanted my LO to remain structured and uncluttered. This design was perfect. My papers are mainly from the MME 'Lost and Found' collection. I was able to use my 6x6 booklets and avoid cutting up a whole sheet of paper for just a small square of paper. I cut the paper doily using a Cheery Lynn doily die and my cuttlebug. Scotty Craft have a good selection of these cool dies available in store.

My 4th GD page for Sketchy Thursdays

2011-09-23T02:49:00.000-07:00

Wow, I can't believe it is already my 4th week as guest designer for Sketchy Thursdays. I used my new October Afternoon Boarding Pass collection for this one. I love the photos of Benji and Sophie on their ride on toys waiting so patiently to cross the road. I had fun with the machine stitching and misting the background.

Sophie's Personality Bag :)

2011-09-21T19:36:00.000-07:00

This is one of those LOs that evolved from the story that I wanted to tell. I was initially going to use one photo of my daughter but this set of 4 just screamed to be scrapped together and really do reflect her happy, fun-loving personality right now. The story that I wanted to record was about Sophie's 'Personality Bag'. Her teacher came up with this lovely idea and each student was assigned a day in which they had to bring a bag containing 5 items that were precious to them and reflected 'who they are' right now. Sophie took this assignment so seriously and the items that she but in her bag were just perfect - Sylvia, her favourite soft toy, her ballet shoes, her favourite porcelein doll, the scrap book that she has made herself and a puzzle book that she loves to do at bedtime with daddy.
I wanted to add lots of journaling to this page so I decided to use one large block to explain the assignment and five smaller journaling spots to record Sophie's choices for her bag. I used up lots of scraps of October Afternoon and Crate paper and added matching journaling spots from both manufacturers. I added lots of small embellishments for interest and tried to keep my items clustered so that the LO did not become overly 'busy' (i'm not sure if I managed that one or not lol).
The current word over at 'Bird is the Word is 'Share' so I thought that this one would b perfect for that theme.

Fathers Day Bowling

2011-09-16T20:46:00.000-07:00

Here is a layout that I did using the current sketch over at 'Get Picky'. The photos are of Benji and Sophie 10-pin bowling on father's day this year. It was one of the first times that Benji has been old enough to join in and Sophie was more than happy to give him a few lessons in correct tecnique :)
I used a ledger sheet from my new 'Prima' stack (available at Scotty craft) as the base for the layout. The rest of the papers are from October Afternoon's 'Rocket Age' line and they really stand out well on the cream ledger background. The corrugated title letters are also currently available at Scotty Craft . I inked them with brown ink for extra definition.

Something Exotic ....and Something exciting :)

2011-09-15T13:34:00.000-07:00

Annes challenge this week at 'Another Freaking Scrappy Challenge' is to use this sketch to scrap something exotic.

Well, my son adam recently travelled on a school trip to Vietnam and took hundreds of photos. These ones at singapore zoo have him in them goofing around and they make me smile and I thought they would fit the theme for my DT layout perfectly. I misted the background with a Prima mask for the circle element then I used papers from Bo Bunny's 'Zoo-ology' line to complete the page. The loops of rustic string along the bottom really seemed to fit ion with the theme and ground the layout. Do head over to AFSC (http://another-freaking-scrappy-challenge.blogspot.com/) this week and try the challenge yourself. Its lots of fun and there is a $25 gift certificate to 'Scrapbookers.com up for grabs.

And now for the exciting thing :)

Remember this page?

Well I just found out that it has won the Inspiration Challenge over at 'Get picky' I am thrilled and honoured. Thanks so much ladies I'm grinning from ear to ear :)

Here's my 3rd LO for Sketchy Thursdays GDT

2011-09-15T13:18:00.000-07:00

This week the theme over at Sketchy Thursdays is 'Frienship'. My daughter had recently been to a photo party and taken lots of awesome photos that were perfect for this challenge - the problem I had was narrowing them down! The sketch had a starburst background pattern so I cut out a template from cardstock and used it as a mask to spray my background. I used Studio Calico 'Calico Cream' spray ink with a couple of drops of bright yellow Glimmer mist mixed in to get the soft butter yellow colour. I used the plastic spray tubing from the glimmer mist to flick some larger splodges over the background before I removed the mask.
Head over to Sketchy Thursdays http://sketchythursdays.blogspot.com/ and join in the fun this week. They are having a blog hop. Here is what they say:

This time we are partnering with ScrapFIT, a challenge blog that offers two Workouts (challenges) per month. They are all about keeping you actively scrappin'!
ScrapFIT's prompt for this week is:
Workout #52- F Is For Friendship

Friends are the family members we pick out by hand. Let's dedicate this week's layout to a special friend(s). Show us who you hang out with or call when you need to vent!
And here is this week's Sketchy Thursdays sketch:

So for this week if you use ScrapFIT's "friends" Workout along with Sketchy Thursday's sketch you will have the chance to win multiple prizes. Not only will ScrapFIT have a prize for their Workout over on their site from Paper Issues but we will have our regular weekly sketch prize.

Sketchy Thursdays are also giving away and awesome prize - the entire September kit from Burlap and Butterflies.

My new Favourite Layout!!

2011-09-12T20:49:00.000-07:00

I usually say that my newest LO is my favourite but I really do love this one. I adore the MME 'Lost and Found' product line and these papers and embellies are from the 'Blush - Beautiful Girl' range. I took the photo of my gorgeous daughter last week and its a stunner! She does not usually wear much make-up but here she is all dressed up ready to go for a TV ad audition. When I saw it I was shocked by how grown up she looks - how did that happen ! The colours were inspired by the current combo at Color Combos Galore.

Benji is 2 1/2 !!

2011-09-11T20:27:00.000-07:00

I can't believe how fast the time flies by. It seems like only yesterday that he was born. This page was inspired by the current challenge sketch at My Minds Eye and the color combo over at the Color Room. The fabulous 'Lost and Found' papers are all taken from my 6X6 paper pad collection. I misted my background with Studio Calico spray ink through a Crafters Workshop woodgrain mask. I added the title with mini-alphas. A hand cut butterfly and a couple of paper strips adhered to the upper left edge of the LO balances the page.

My 2nd Guest DT Layout for Sketchy Thursdays!

2011-09-08T20:29:00.000-07:00

Here is my take on the current sketch over at Sketchy Thursdays. It is my second week as Guest designer for their site and I am really having fun! I used October Afternoons "Rocket Age" papers and Tim Holtz masks to mist the background. The cute photos are of my teenage son and his baby brother 'playing' with boys stuff in the back garden :)
If you have time why not visit the Sketchy Thursdays blog http://sketchythursdays.blogspot.com/ and have a go at the sketch yourself. There are some great prizes to be won.

Spring is here!!!

2011-09-05T19:23:00.000-07:00

The inspiration board over at Get Picky is so beautiful - yellow daffodils and all things spring. I immediately thought of these photos of Sophie trying on swimming togs at Pumpkin Patch. I took the photos in the changing rooms with my phone camera so the quality was not good but they were so cute that I just had to scrap them:) Seriously she tried on every swimsuit and bikini in the store before settliing on these bright yellow ones (usually she goes for pink so this was a complete surprise to us all lol). I used a crafters workshop butterfly mask and yellow spray ink to make the background. The rest of the LO uses up scraps of October Afternoon and Echo Park papers. The flower is another handmade silk ribbon creation (thanks again Sue for your great tutorial ) The chipboard rainbow is from scrapware and I colored it with copic marker pens.

Exam day :)

2011-09-02T21:14:00.000-07:00

Here is my current LO for Color Combos Galore. I don't use a lot of purple on my pages so this was a bit of a challenge for me. I used a piece of corrugated cardboard to stamp brown paint onto the background. I had fun hand-making the flowers using a technique that I learned from Sue at Scotty Craft. First dye a length of white silk ribbon using Tim Holtz distress stains. Punch a 1.5" circle from cardsrock and run it through a xyron machine. Start to coil the ribbon around the circle working from the outer edge in towards the centre, pleating as you go. Add a button or gem to the centre (I used prima flower centers for mine) and voila, you have a beautiful silk flower.

My first page as Guest Designer for Sketchy Thursdays

2011-09-01T23:19:00.000-07:00

Check out the new sketch over at Sketchy Thursdays. I am guest designer for the month and this is my first page. I took the photo at Takapuna beach last Sunday. It was a beautiful spring-like day and the girls were jumping over the waves together. I used bubble wrap and white paint to make the spray effect for the background.

Check out the challenge over at Another Freaking Scrappy Challenge

2011-08-31T11:52:00.000-07:00

The challenge this time at Another Freaking Scrappy Challenge http://another-freaking-scrappy-challenge.blogspot.com/ is to scrap your birthplace and year – incorporating at least two things that were popular in culture that year as an embellishment (song title, historical event, movie, hero or heroine) – you can include baby photos instead of photos of your birthplace if you wish.
Here is my takefor the DT. I added the song title and flowers (since I was born at the end of the 'flower power' years). You have until the 14th of September at midnight to post your take on the challenge to be eligible for our prize this month. You will have a second chance to enter a layout for this prize on the 15th of September during our sketch challenge for September.
Our prize this month is a $25.00 gift certificate to Scrapbookers.com!!!

Using a neutral background

2011-08-31T00:57:00.000-07:00

The challenge this week over at Color Combos galore is to use a neutral background to create a layout. This was a real challenge for me as I like to use bright colours on my pages usually. I thought about converting my photos to black and white to blend in but in the end I printed out some very colourful beach pictures and I really like how they 'pop' from the background colours.