Feeling patriotic

I haven't been doing much scrapping over the past few weeks - a combination of nightwork lethargy, missing mojo, and lots of time spent outdoors in the gorgeous spring sunshine.

Just one layout to share today:

Click to enlarge

I'm entering my layout in these challenges:

# A2Z Scraplets ~ October sketch
I turned the sketch 90 degrees left to suit my photograph.
# Papertake Weekly ~ Sparkly and bright
Lots of rhinestone dots on the butterfly wings.
# Secret Crafter ~ Challenge 107 ~ Anything that flies
I cut butterflies from the offcuts, mimicking the shape of the Cosmo Cricket 'Togetherness' motif.
# One Stitch at a Time ~ Challenge #36 ~ Any celebration
Australia Day

Swimming

It's time to share my project for the Elements Challenge over at Design Dollies this week.  The theme is 'mixed media' and after a bit of pondering I came up with this:

Click to enlarge

I made my own 'canvas' by shaping some corrugated cardboard packaging, painting with gesso and acrylic paint, then Mod-Podging a piece of metallic wrapping paper onto the background.  Then I sponged gesso over the top again to get rid of the shine, and scrapped over the top of that.

It's an aide-memoire for my daughter to help her pack her own bag for swimming lessons.  We have all sorts of little lists all over the house to help her navigate routine activities more easily, so she doesn't feel constantly lost and confused.  She hasn't seen this new version of her swim bag list yet; I hope it will make her smile.

Purple and white and black

It's Design Dollies time again, and I've been revisiting purple.  This week the Colour Challenge is to use PURPLE   BLACK and WHITE:


Click to enlarge

I'm entering my layout at:
# Top Tip Tuesday ~ #7 ~ Anything goes


The J-girl *loves* purple and black.  She also *loves* Converse High Tops.  Unfortunately, they are a bit out of our budget so she's just been dreaming about them.  About a month ago, I found these cheap no-name canvas boots at an outlet store:



She wore them a few times, but she is now becoming a little more fashion conscious and interested in experimenting with accessories, and she told me more than once that they are 'a bit plain':

 

Then the Nook U Final 6 challenge at My Scrapbook Nook came up ~ "Alter something.  Anything." ~ I knew exactly what I was going to do. I used lace and beads and fabric paint, and a LOT of hot glue gun action and I came up with this:



I didn't win any places in the challenge, but I did win some "Mummy Points" at home!

Cards

Back to some cardmaking, using lots of leftover bits and pieces from my messy scrap desk! My theory is -  if you use it all up, you don't need to tidy it away ;)



# Party Time Tuesdays ~ Challenge 17 ~ Anything Goes
# Corrosive ~ Challenge 86 ~ Get rid of the white
# Wee Memories ~ Challenge 27 ~ Celebrate good times
# Beary Sweet ~ Challenge #12 ~ Misting

I used Smooch Spritz 'Sunkissed' to spray white Prima e-line flowers, and I also coloured the lace by soaking up the overspray.  I also used: Cosmo Cricket 'Togetherness' papers, Stampin' Up sentiment, Kaisercraft pearls.




# Etsy Inspired ~ EIC #110 ~ Inspired by this card at Capturing Creativity
# Tuesday Throwdown ~  Challenge #22  ~ Anything Goes

Some sketches

I love sketches and it's been a while since I printed some out and just sat and scrapped with them. Over the weekend I did exactly that, although I did have a fairly limited selection of photographs and papers to work with.

The first one was inspired by the October sketch at Crafty Sketches:



I'm entering this one at:
# Papercutz ~ Challenge #63 ~ Anything Goes


The second one was inspired by the October sketch at Scrap Lounge:

Green and silver

When I saw the Design Dollies Colour Challenge for this week - GREEN and SILVER, I fell in love with the combination straight away and knew which paper in my green folder that I would use. 



I used: Scribble Scrabble 'Bric-a-Brac Collection' paper, GlimmerMist 'Key Lime Pie', Stampin' Up ribbon, Banana Frog 'Sentimental Style' stamp set, Colorbox fluid chalk, Signo silver glitter pen.  The silver crochet'd flowers were made by someone very special to me - she's considering selling some, but for the moment is just making them for fun.

I'm entering my card at:

# Papertake Weekly ~ Three of a kind
# ABC Challenge ~ F is for ~ Flowers
# Craftalicious ~ Challenge 10 ~ Anything goes

Something different

I had a fabulous weekend away at Macleay Island celebrating my birthday with three very special friends... I'll probably share some of the highlights in a layout or two sometime. I feel very blessed to have such amazing friends.  The time spent with them over the weekend would have been more than enough for me, but they also gave me some gorgeous birthday presents:







And it's not a birthday party without some little take-home treats.  I had assembled the little goodie bags during the week, then I had the last-minute idea to make some treat-covers to go over the top. 



The embellishments are super simple and not terribly decorative, but I enjoyed making them and they look much more interesting than the gift- wrap version I was originally considering.  The contents included journalling cards, chipboard shapes, chocolate, a lottery ticket and a few other little treats. 

I'm submitting my creations at:
# Project Tuesday ~ Treat bag cover
# Charisma Cardz ~ Week 41 ~ More than one fold

Unplugged

I'm away for three days - no phone, no computer, no internet, totally unplugged!  I'm just scheduling a post to share one of my recent creations.

This is a layout I did for Nook U Final #4 at My Scrapbook Nook.  The criteria included - a shaped layout, about a child, not 'flat', include chipboard:

Click to enlarge

Cards, cards, cards

I've been going mad with cards lately... some days I even feel like a cardmaker!

This one is for the Colour Challenge at Design Dollies, using the delicious colour combination of pink, turquoise and white:



Make sure you check out the blog link to admire the creations of the other Dollies, and don't forget, there is a fabulous prize too!


Over at My Scrapbook Nook, the Nook U Finals (Part 2) was to create five cards. The criteria was based on the traditional wedding adage of 'Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue' - one card for each 'something' plus one wedding card. I mistook the deadline (oops) and only got three finished, but I was still happy with what I made:

Wedding card (additional criteria ~ perfectly square)


"Something blue" (own choice shape - long rectangle)


"Something new" - new product (additional criteria ~ circle card


(I think this one is my favourite - I'm also in love with Echo Park!)


The next two cards were for the Finals (Part 5) - a challenge an hour for 24 hours. I think I got six of the challenges done; these were the cards:

Altered

It's bucketing rain here... has been for the better part of a week. Good natural light is nearly non-existent; none of the photographs of layouts I've taken over the past few days look remotely like the original colours.

So... just a little share today.

This is a quick little altered mint tin that I did for the Nook U Final #5. It earned me a point, but I'm so far behind in the points stakes I really don't think it made a difference. I bombed out in the Finals - it was all too fast-moving for me.

But for a girl who doesn't do OTP's I'm pretty happy with this:

Nook U Finals #1

I'm thrilled that I made it to the top 15, and I'm now in the finals...  but what a scary first final!!  We had to design a mini-album, with at least 8 pages, and incorporate at least three of the previous Nook U classes.

I included elements from Art Class 110 (doodling), Art Class (paint), English Literature (journalling), Home Economics (stitching and ribbons).
Paint media used: Gesso; GlimmerMist - ; acrylic paint - Making Memories "Eat Carrots".

I also included Typography 101 (the front cover title) and Shop 101 (I used my scalloped edge punch to make flowers, and I even used those little thin paper strips from the edge of the punching to make some little 'starburst' flowers.)

I didn't have a mini-album to use, so I made my own by altering this newsletter:











I painted on a coat of gesso, then GlimmerMist-ed with two colours - "Terracotta Gold" and "Key Lime Pie". I had a little production line happening! It took ages to dry with all the wet weather we've been having lately, but I was happy with the result. It's got a gorgeous glimmery sheen.







I'm sure that this album will expand sometime soon, but for now, this is the completed version for the challenge. 

Click to enlarge on any image:

Getting sketchy

Over at Design Dollies, it's my turn to submit a project for the Sketch Challenge. This time I've made a card:



I *love* the Bella Boulevarde papers - so bright and sunny, and I even used the product strip for my sentiment, because it fit in there perfectly.

I'm entering my card at:

# Paper Sundaes ~ Challenge #38 ~ Something from your stash
It's all product from my stash, but the ribbon is quite old, and the DMC embroidery thread is from my cross-stitching stash!
# Papertake Weekly ~ 5th October ~ Revisit a challenge
Revisiting "A Stitch In Time"  (August 2008)

Procrastination

"Procrastination is the bad habit of putting off until the day after tomorrow what should have been done the day before yesterday.” ~ Napoleon Hill

I'm embarrassed to admit that I am an expert procrastinator. I've been battling with procrastination all my life. I'm great with deadlines, but I also frequently live with the stress and adrenaline rush of a last-minute finish.

This month, I've been invited to be a Guest Designer at Scrap Our Stash, and the October challenge is to "Do THAT project". I have a hundred procrastinated-too-long projects to choose from!!

This is what I created:



In 2007, on the way home from a week-long driving vacation, I asked my husband to make a slight detour to visit the country town where my grandparents used to live.  We sought out the cemetery and located their gravestones.  I took some photographs, knowing that I may never visit again. The actual grave markers don't hold a lot of significance for me; I believe that once we pass on, our souls move to a better place.  Memories live in our hearts and minds, not at a graveside.  But somehow I thought it was important to visit, and also to show my daughter the location of my grandparents' final resting place.

So, I've had these photographs on my hard-drive for almost three years, not really knowing whether to scrap them or how to go about it.  This challenge motivated me to print them out, and get them on a page.  Because I didn't feel any deep emotional response to the visit, I also had no real compulsion to record the experience - so I kept the journalling factual.

As for "scrapping our stash" - I used a 6x6 sheet of Basic Grey 'Motifica' paper pad that has been in my collection for years and years, a journalling page from Making Memories, and a small strip of Cosmo Cricket from last year's 'Nutmeg' line.

My scrapping tip for today:  Dress up older papers by adding an interesting personal touch!  I added some hand  stitching to make the paper pop from the page, and it formed a subtle frame for the very plain photographs too.

# City Crafter ~ Week 24 ~ Flowers and frills
# Paper Cutz ~ Challenge  #61 ~ Three patterned papers
# C.R.A.F.T ~ Challenge 70 ~ Fancy floral - I used a crocheted flower

Etsy Inspired

This layout:



was inspired by this product picture:



which I found at this fabulous Etsy store: Two Eggplants
which I found at:  Etsy Inspired Challenges this week.

Couldn't resist using some more of my DeLovely scraps!!

One rodent, one ratbag...

This is my layout for the Design Dollies Sketch Challenge this week:



Kristy creates the most amazing sketches - check out her work and also the other Dollies' contributions on the blog - and check out the prize you could win too.  This is the last sketch for September.

I'm also entering my layout at:
# Crazy Challenge ~ No ribbons or buttons
# CES Challenges ~ Challenge #5 ~ Animal Antics