Trifect-ing

Over at Design Dollies, we're into the fourth challenge of the month - the much-anticipated "Trifecta" which combines the criteria from each of the three preceding weeks. Here's my sample layout for January:



And my little closeup of the doodled title:



I'm entering my layout at:
# Paper Play ~ Week 4 ~ Layer it up
# Fab'n'Funky ~ Challenge 57 ~ Delight in your digi
I  used: Vintage Journal Block (freebie digital from My Grafico)

Summer loving

This week my scrapping has been all about summer.

I'm joining in the first Kraft it Up! challenge of the year with this layout:



I'm also joining in over at Scrap the Girls for the first time ever, with this layout:



I really didn't like this when I finished it; it was too linear and boxy, too 'primary'... but the more I looked at it, the more it grew on me and I decided it really was about time I joined in at Scrap the Girls after procrastinating for so long!! I'm also pleased I've finally been able to use some of those American Craft 'Travel' papers and whittle away a bit more old stash.

CRAFTy Thursday on a Friday

I missed CRAFT Challenge last week - my week just fell apart and it didn't happen. This week I did something a little bit different. The criteria is to create a gatefold card with tag insert - I used a bit of creative licence and did a 6x6 layout instead, inside a gatefold stand:




Click to enlarge

The image is 'Birds on a Branch' from this week's sponsor, Ai Factory, and I coloured it with watercolour pencils and used some more old stash from my offcuts folder (Basic Grey and Kaisercraft).

I'm entering my creation at:
# Scrap Lounge ~ January sketch
# One Stop Craft ~ Challenge 115 ~ More than one fold

Cybercropping

I haven't joined in a cybercrop for ages!! And this weekend I joined in two.

Over at Scrap Boutique, I started out with the speed scrap on Friday night - using the sketch provided, the word 'refreshing' in the title, and a patterned paper background:



Lots of older stash in this one - Basic Grey 'Sugared - Cherished', old Rose Moka stickers, and I think the torn paper is My Little Shoebox - I scavenged that from my scraps folder. Leah and Leone and Jolene will recognise the photo!

At Scrap Lounge, Challenge 3 required a song title and some summer elements - I chose a sun, and the lyrics are from Stevie Wonder's "A Place in the Sun":



That's it, just two layouts. I got sidetracked by real life and didn't get all the challenges finished, but I did *scrap* so I'm pretty happy about that.

EDITED: I won a prize at Scrap Lounge for the second layout :)

Some Odd stuff...

Totally forgot to upload these and missed the deadline, LOL!!  But had fun anyway :)

Kristy is celebrating the first anniversary of her store, Some Odd Girl Digital Stamps - and this was my entry into her challenge to use "one digi, three ways":



I used the January freebie image, Star Bright Tia to make a bookmark, ATC and gift card.  I used watercolour pencils, and a heap of different papers from my scraps folder - Three Bugs in a Rug, Rose Moka, Basic Grey, Crate Paper, and my new Glitz alpha stickers.

The J-girl joined in too for the Kids' Day challenge - she was away for the weekend with her dad and didn't have her card-making stuff, but she did have her colouring pencils:

A little bit red

Another card...



# Make it Colourful ~ Challenge #2 ~ Colour with red
I used Crayola watercolour pencil "Deep Red" - which I think is the perfect colour for cherries.
# Pear Tree Designs ~ Challenge 32 ~ Free for all
# Challenge Up Your Life ~ Challenge #35 ~ Clean and Simple

I also used:  Freebie image from Meljen's Designs. Spellbinders Nestabilities 'Blossum' diecut, Basic Grey 'Sugared' paper, Bazzill cardstock, AdornIt alphabet stickers

More Madison Avenue

I got lots of MME 'Lost and Found - Madison Avenue' in my design team kit from Scrap Pile, and I love it!  Here's another layout:



And a thank you card:



I'm submitting my card at:
# Aud Sentiments ~ Challenge 19 ~ Two words
Thank you
# My Partner in Crafting Crime ~ Challenge #17 ~ Something new
The MME paper and diecut are new additions to my stash

Some Odd Girl has a birthday...

My Dollie-friend Kristy is a very talented artist and owner of Some Odd Girl Digital Stamps.




Kristy is celebrating Some Odd Girl's first anniversary with a heap of challenges and other fun stuff:

16th - Kick off and rundown (with a lil question)
17th - 1 Digis 3 Ways Challenge
18th - an Odd History and mini blog hop ***one year anniversary TODAY!***
19th - Some Odd Girl Colors Challenge
20th - Kids Coloring Challenge
21st - Some Odd Elements Challenge
22nd - Mini Card Challenge

This is my favourite card that I've made with a S.O.G. image (using 'Mae' last year):

If you pop over at Some Odd Girl this week, please put a comment at this post and let Kristy know that I sent you :)

Cool colours

Thursday again, and time for sharing my CRAFT Challenge creation for the week. This week the theme is 'moving components':



What I did: I used an image from our sponsor Claire, at Hope Jacare Doodles and I layered up the flowers with brads so the top layers spin around.

I'm entering my card at:

# Make it Colourful ~ Challenge 1 ~Warm or cool colours
I used Faber-Castelle watercolour pencils. I'm not too happy with the results but that's the reason I'm joining the weekly challenges - I am determined to get better this year!
# Sundays with Crissy ~ Challenge #13 ~ Ribbons
I used American Craft ribbon.

Blue and white and kraft and red...

The Design Dollies are back again in 2011!  We have re-packaged our fun, familiar challenge categories into a brand new format, and challenges will now post every Monday.  Here's my first Dollie-creation for the year, using the colours of BLUE, WHITE, KRAFT and RED:



I'm submitting my layout at:

# Papertake Weekly ~ Anything goes (including the optional extra - add lace)


Continuing my love of all things Kraft, I pulled out some more and created this layout:



I'm submitting this layout at:

# The Kraft Journal ~ Challenge #1 ~ Flourish
I used: Kraft for the base cardstock, MME 'Life Stories' journalling card (this range is all printed on Kraft cardstock), and  the flourish is from my old Maya Road chipboard stash - painted (Kaisercolour 'Metallic Gold' acrylic paint) and threaded onto the ribbon.
# Really Reasonable Ribbon ~ Challenge #15 ~ Something New
I used: MME 'Lost & Found - Madison Avenue' papers and glitter diecut shape, and pale pink organza ribbon which I bought especially for this layout.

CRAFT + Sketch = Cute

This week at CRAFT Challenge Blog I was lucky to work with a lovely sketch by Kevin and a selection of gorgeous images from Meljen Designs.   This is the card that I made, using "A Girl and her Overalls":

I coloured the image using watercolour pencils. I have seen Melissa's images all over the blogosphere but never used them before, so I went looking to find out a bit more about her work. I highly recommend visiting her personal site HERE.

I'm entering my card at:
# CES ~ Challenge 17 ~ Anything Goes
# Really Reasonable Ribbon ~ Challenge #15 ~ Something new

Jazi's first card for 2011

It's summer school holidays, and with all the wet weather we've been having, Jazi has spent a lot of time indoors. We've been scrapping and cardmaking together - is there a better way to spend a housebound day?

This card is for CRAFT Challenges - using the sketch and the cute "Cheesy Mouse" image from Meljen's Designs:



Jasmine is entering her card at:
# CES ~ Challenge 17 ~ Anything Goes

First sketch for 2011

It's my turn to do the sketch challenge at Scrap Pile this month, and here it is:



Digital credits: 'Courtship' kit by Stacy Marks

This is my layout, using Fancy Pants "Happy Together" papers:



And another layout for Scrap Pile using the same collection:



I was experimenting a bit with this layout, playing with paper curling.  I've seen it used a lot lately and I wanted to try it but grunge it up a bit too.  I'm not sure if I like how it turned out or not:



I was a bit disappointed in myself with both of these ones - I don't know if it was the photographs or the papers, but I just couldn't seem to pull everything together in the way I visualised the layouts.  Maybe it's just because I haven't had a dedicated scrap session in over a month - these were created bit by bit, 10-15 minutes at a time, sometimes days apart, in between school break ups, Christmas and New Year.

Celebrations

My first photograph for the New Year:



Not bad when you consider I didn't have a tripod with me.  The 'people shots' didn't turn out so well though, so I'm not sure what I'll do with thoses ones.


This is a little tag that I made for our New Year champagne bottle:





What I did:
I made my own template - it was just a rectangular offcut of cardstock, folded in half, with a circle cut in the middle of one half. I don't have a circle punch so I just traced around a bottle lid and cut it out with scissors. I rounded the corners using scissors, and inked the edges (Colorbox fluid chalk). I stamped the flourish image (Fancy Pants), then added some Kindy Glitz to make it shimmer (in hindsight, not a good idea, because the humidity made it all runny). I added rhinestones (Kaisercraft), alphabet stickers (AdornIt) and an oversized butterfly (which made the smudged Kindy Glitz less noticeable, LOL!)

The top reads, "Should auld acquaintance be forgot..."

Challenge entries:
# By the Cute and Girly ~ January ~ Bling it on
# Simon Says ~ Time to party
# City Crafter ~ Week 37 ~ Stamp it out
# Frosted Designs ~ Fabulous Friday ~ Quotes
# Stamp Something ~ Something with glitter