More weekend scrapping

It was fabulous to meet up with some of the Scrap Pile girls on Saturday at a fun crop afternoon/evening - lots of scrapping, as well as the obligatory food, drinks and non-stop chatter!

Mel and Helen flew down from NQ, and there were lots of local girls - Linda, Leone, Kristy, Jaki, Sally, Fiona, and Leah.

Here's three of us, photograph taken by our resident photographer, thanks Leah!




And here are some of the layouts I created:

New beginnings

This weekend the CISters are holding the first cybercrop at Crafting in Style since the change in ownership, and it's all about 'new beginnings'.

Manon did the sketch challenge this time round, and this is my take:




In keeping with the theme, the OTP challenge was to create 'something new from something old' using recycled cartons. This is my sample creation:

We've been busy behind the scenes planning a new competition and a new monthly challenge, and it all starts in May... stay tuned.

Easter scrapping

No Easter layouts this year (yet) but I did make a basket, card and tag for Liz's Stylist Challenge over at Scrap Boutique:




I also finished two layouts for the Easter mini-crop:





The second LO is a lift of a P4F2 layout by Emma Allen whose work is simply gorgeous.

Must be the clouds in my eyes

I was over at Miss D's reading her photography wish list... and her inclusion of 'clouds' really hit home for me. I take so-o-o-o many photographs of clouds and I am never entirely happy with the result. I'm still searching for the perfect cloud photograph, I can never quite get the lighting right, and I suppose the camera will never truly capture the beauty of the real thing. I keep trying though.

I took these photographs of storm clouds over our neighbourhood on 16th March, just before a huge hailstorm passed over us:




This week I scrapped some cloud photographs which I took through the front windscreen of the car during our recent holiday:



Credit to Sir Elton John for the title, a line from one of my favourite EJ songs.

Another page

from Liz's Sketchbook:

This is my contribution for April:



The original sketch and the layouts from the rest of the team are over ---> HERE

April so far...

With so much going on in my home and work life, April has been a bit light-on in the creative department. But I am still scrapping - behind the scenes I've been planning some DT projects, sorting my scrap supplies, streamlining my photograph filing system, and hanging out with some special scrap-buddies.

The new owner of Crafting in Style has 'officially' taken over - welcome Lana! I'm so excited for you and looking forward to working more closely with you.


On Friday night I was thrilled to find out I came in third for the Scrap Boutique Passion 4 Fashion competition, and I'm looking forward to going shopping again :)

Over the weekend I did a couple of layouts for the Scrap Boutique cybercrop:

Passion 4 Fashion layouts (last ones)

Just sharing the last of my Passion 4 Fashion layouts for the challenge over at Scrap Boutique:

Week 5 ~ 1900's

This was my favourite layout of all of them. I just loved combining all the elements, especially playing with the pleating:






Week 6 ~ 1970's




Definitely my favourite colour scheme of the six -I love orange and lime green together, despite the horrific memories of our ugly 1970's kitchen!!

Still have a Passion4Fashion...

Week 4 of the Passion4Fashion challenge over at Scrap Boutique, based on elements from the 1950's: natural fibres, gingham, monogram, denim, applique motif, ricrac ~



I've been dying to scrap these pics from last year, and this was the perfect challenge. I had fun playing with the fabric, haven't done that for ages.

What I've been creating

... at Crafting in Style.

This is the layout "You're Special" which I created for our fund-raiser for cancer research last month. I really loved creating this one, and I loved presenting the class even more:




And my last Stylish Class Kit ~ "Cool Chick"~ is up in store now:

Holiday layouts

One of the side-benefits of our recent holiday was a HUGE stash of new photographs!! I took over 1000 photographs (after culling, I might have around 800). Inspiration abounds now, no excuses.

This is the first layout I scrapped using my newest photographs. It's for the March Stash Stomper challenge over at Scrap Boutique, using Kate's sketch and at least four stickers. My stickers are from Carolee's Creations 'Timeless' range. I received a gorgeous product pack from Aussie Scrap Source over a year ago and I'd totally overlooked the sticker sheet until now.




The second one is for a challenge over at Heaven Sent, to scrap about a man in my life. I love this photograph so much.

More Passion4Fashion layouts

Just sharing two more layouts that I completed for the Passion4Fashion challenge over at Scrap Boutique:

1960's - I really struggled with this one, and wasn't entirely happy with the end result, but it's growing on me. I focussed more on a conservative 'preppie' style with only a smidgen of 'hippie' style thrown in:




1920's - I did this one while I was on holidays and didn't have a huge selection of products with me, but I really like how it turned out. I focused on the lace, feathers and pearls, and the blue/grey/brown neutral colour scheme:

Photo tag

I've been tagged by Rihani AND Kate for this one, and it works like this: Go to the sixth photo folder on your PC, then upload the sixth photo and explain what it's about. Then you tag six people and the game continues...

So, this is the sixth photograph in my sixth folder from my holiday shots in March 2009:



Hmmm, probably not the best photograph but it's very cute! I took this in Princes Park, Melbourne on 2nd March, when I met up with the gorgeous Laura Overdyk (who is a fellow DT over at Crafting in Style). This is my not-so-little girl, and Laura's two beautiful children playing together in the park. Just love that expression on Master L's face!!

I tag:
1> Laura (of course)
2> Leone (who will have zillions of photos to share when she gets home)
3> Liz (who should be taking lots of photos with her fancy Canon D-SLR)
4> Miss D (because I love it when she updates her blog)
5> Stace (because she has a brand new blog and this could be her first tag?)
6> Kerry (because I'm slack and haven't visited for a while)

Have fun :)

Another page from Liz's Sketchbook

I just love Liz's sketches! The new sketch for March is ready, and here is my contribution:




The team is growing too... Stacey Young is now part of the fun, just love her style.

Taste of Summer

Summer is over but there's still "A Taste of Summer" available at the CIS store now. This is my latest Stylish Kit:



And a little sneak-peek for the next one due out soon:

More layouts

Just a quick layout share.

Over at Scrap Boutique I finished Liz's Stash Stomper challenge, using more than four different papers:




Still at the Boutique, the Passion 4 Fashion challenge has started. I'm not sure if I can participate every week, but it's fun so far. Week 1 is 1980's influences, so I went with lime green and hot pink, a 'Wham' inspired title font and Kool and the Gang lyrics:




Scrapping some more birthday photographs, and loving the bright colours:




Toning down the colours a bit, I created this layout for a 'negative space' challenge over at Ready Set Scrap:

Love is in the air

We don't really celebrate St Valentine's Day in our house, but in my scrappy-life I've been creating quite a few LOVE-themed projects.

I made this card for a challenge over at Scrap Pile:







The next one isn't really a Valentine layout, but it is a sweet one. I submitted this for one of the February challenges at Heaven Sent:





Over at the Ready Set Scrap cybercrop, I did a few more 'love' inspired layouts:









And with February far from over, there's bound to be more!

Crafting for Cancer cybercrop

Over at Crafting in Style our February cybercrop is dedicated to the memory of Dee Lewthwaite, a CISter who sadly lost her battle with cancer late last year. We're raising funds for the Cancer Council through the proceeds of three online classes, kit sales and some special activities over the weekend.

Tonight I'm running my class "You're Special" and it's not too late to join in. Class access is still available and instructions will remain online for future reference. I'll share the layout in a few days, but for now I think it's only fair that the class participants get first peek :)

It was also my turn to do the cybercrop sketch:





Manon and Laura are also each teaching a class, and they have prepared some fabulous cybercrop challenges too :)

Another sketchbook page

The February sketch is up at A Page from my Sketchbook. This is my contribution this month:



PS:
Kate Turner has joined the team too... congratulations Kate!

The last few weeks

... have been busy. I'm doing a bit of scrapping, writing up class instructions, and playing around with Photoshop. A few of my layouts are for special projects which I can't share yet, but these ones I can:


This one was for Manon's 'Sunday Roast' at the Scrap Boutique cybercrop:




Yet another photograph of my cutie-pie nephew:




Last, another digital for ADSR4. This time the criteria was to use vintage elements:

Summer photo challenge

I enjoyed a refresher on photograph techniques during a 'Summer Photo Challenge' over at Scrap Boutique in January. These are my submissions:

Week 1 - Get closer:




Week 2 - Focus:




Week 3 - Rule of thirds:




Week 4 - Candid:




I also created one layout for each photograph, and of those, these are my two favourites: