Swatch it Up with Kraft Plus

I'm popping back in to give you the heads up about the new Challenge over at Kraft Plus.  And yours truly is a Guest Designer for April...yay!  Boy! did it take me out of my comfort zone or what?!!!
The Challenge.....to use paint swatches.

This turned out to be more fun than I first thought. It was just a matter of thinking outside the square. I hope my Slipperhood Sisters don't mind me using this photo, but it suited the theme perfectly. Thanks Mary, Lizzy, Cheryl & Bec xx

Besides their wonderful inspiration, these girls never fail to cheer me up, so when we all get together (a rare treat, sadly) we certainly make the most of it. They really do make life colourful :) 

Call on over to the Kraft Plus blog and check out all the fabulous DT inspiration.  I hope you get to play along. Thanks for dropping by xx 

Case File #145

Here is another Case File for CSI: Colour, Stories, Inspiration as part of my Special Deputy inspiration. Another fantastic Scheme this week:

And her is how I solved the Case:

I really loved working with these colours. I've hidden my journalling on the tag with the black ribbon. I hand-made the red flower because, strangely enough, I didn't have any in my flower stash....very unusual. I should actually make more of my own flowers, because I forgot how easy they are. The blue flowers are from Prima and I die cut my own leaves.

This lovely pic is of our DD and a good friend, getting ready for a wedding in Italy last year. I'm not sure who took the photo, but thank you to whoever it was :)

The journalling reads: " Back when you were attending Uni, travelling the World seemed like such a pipe dream to you. It's amazing what you have achieved in the last five years. Who would have thought that you'd have the opportunity to attend Emma's wedding in Italy?!"

Pop on over to CSI and check out the wonderful DT inspiration. TFL xx

CSI #144

I've had a busy day with the blog posts today, and I have one more to add before I crawl into bed for a few hours. This is the current Case File at CSI: Colour, Stories, Inspiration

I must say that I love these colours! I created a page about my creative journey. The photo is of some of my favourite pages that I've created over the last 12 months.

Because I've suddenly become a "yellow" fan, as you can see I've used it as my main colour.

I've also developed an obsession for sequins of late as well. I found a lovely pack of mixed colours in a little craft shop recently and it includes a lot of the colours that I often use. They are good at adding a little bit of sparkle when needed :)  And of course I had to add a cluster.....my page wouldn't be complete without it!
I do hope you get a chance to play along at CSI this week. Thanks for calling in again xx

ARTastic mid-month reveal....

Hello again. I almost forgot to post this layout I made for the fun challenge over at ARTastic. I've never thought about using paintings as inspiration for a layout, but when I was asked to be a GD at ARTastic for this month I was intrigued by how I was going to interpret the challenge:

A lovely piece of artwork and the Jacaranda tree is such a focal point. It reminded me of our visit to Versailles, France. We were walking through the magnificent grounds of Marie Antionette's estate when our guide showed us a very old Judas Tree. Now I must admit I'd never heard of a Judas tree but I fell in love with it because at the time of our visit, it was in flower. So here is my take on this challenge telling a little story about the Judas Tree.

This is such a pretty tree & this pic shows a "Folly" in the background, one of several scattered throughout the gardens of the Palace of Versailles.

                                             

I've used some lovely mauve flowers from Scrappers Garden as well as little Kaisercraft roses & I altered some metalware pieces.

The journalling for this page reads:

"The Judas Tree is a type of redbud tree that is native to Asian Countries. It is a deciduous tree & during the late winter or early spring it produces bright pink or magenta coloured blossoms. It is sometimes rumoured to be the tree that Judas Iscariot hung himself from after he betrayed Jesus."

I've learnt from this challenge not to disregard famous paintings as inspiration for my own work.

I hope you can play along :)  TFL xx

CSI #142...

Welcome back! It's another gorgeous spring day here and a long weekend as well....gotta be happy with that! This weeks Case File at CSI: Colour, Stories, Inspiration has a great colour scheme to get us in the mood for Summer:

The Scene for this had me completely stumped for a while. It took a good couple of days for me to get my head around how I was going to interpret this Case File. And then I had a brain-wave....doesn't happen very often I can assure you. I was looking through the dozens of travel photos that the young ones have sent me and I started thinking about how they have coped not only with their move overseas but with also learning to live with each other on a daily basis and the many challenges and adventures that they have been through together. They both have very different personalities but in some ways they share some personality traits. When I put those thoughts with this weeks Scene I realised that it is true that one is right brain dominant and the other left brain dominant which maybe is how they've made it work. So this is what I came up with:

and a closie of the journalling:

                           

This lovely pic was taken on one of the Croatian islands recently - thanks guys for the pic :) I'm loving all the bright colours in this Case File and I feel quite comfortable using them these days, but it took a while for me get used to using lots of brights together.

I do hope you'll give this one a go. There is plenty of other inspiration by the DT over at CSI so don't feel daunted, just go with your mojo :)

Thanks for looking xx

CSI/S365-8 NEWS!

Hello my fellow scrappers! I was very excited to be chosen as a Special Deputy over at CSI: Colour, Stories, Inspiration for the October S365-8 Challenge.  This is the second time I've been lucky enough to be a Guest Designer for this monthly challenge. Here is the Case File:

I fell in love with this colour scheme because it incorporates two of my fave colours; Aqua & Teal. So here is my inspo:

I love using Kraft and I recently bought the new Kaisercraft "Mix & Match" collection. It's so versatile and goes with any photo.

I chose to use the red as an accent and picked up some little jars of these buttons at a discount store a few weeks ago and I've used lots of them already.  I need more buttons like I need a hole in the head.....but they looked so cute in their little jars & for $2 a jar I wasn't going to take a pass.

I hope you like this Case File & we'd love to see your interpretation. Go on over to the CSI blog & check out the other design team's creations.

Thanks for looking today :)  xx

PLAYING WITH FLOWERS...

Welcome back, I hope you are all going to have a very creative weekend. I've been fortunate enough to be given a spot as a Guest Designer for September at SCRAPPERS GARDEN, by the lovely Linda Thompson. And what a fabulous season to be showcasing Linda's stunning flowers from her SHOP. I urge you to call in and check out the amazing range of hand-made flowers, all categorised by colour for our convenience, and support a great Aussie business.

I will be providing you with a little bit of inspiration every Saturday this month through the Scrappers Garden Facebook Page along with the other talented Design Team members. BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE....Linda is having a FB Sale on Wednesday 10th September with very reasonably priced bags of goodness PLUS a chance to win yourself a free bag of flowers if you make a purchase! Click on the Scrappers Garden link above which will take you straight to the FB page for details.

So here is my first layout using Scrappers Garden hand-made flowers:

                                                                  "You are my..."

The lovely black & white flowers were perfect for this page plus I added a little bit of red ink to the edges of the "Sugar Pop" flowers to add a little more colour to the page.

I hope you love the flowers from Scrappers Garden as much as I do. Stay tuned for next Saturday's post when I'll be back with a another project created just for Scrappers Garden and I'm sure you'll love the colours of the flowers that I've used on it.

Enjoy your weekend, and Happy Father's Day to my Dad and all the amazing Aussie Dad's out there. I hope you all enjoy your day tomorrow. Thanks for looking :)

CSI: Colour, Stories, Inspiration #125

I'm back again today with my last Special Deputy project for CSI for May. I've had so much fun with the Case Files this month & I'd like thank Debbi for the opportunity to (hopefully) provide some inspo. This week's Case File has the most beautiful colour scheme & I couldn't wait to jump into solving this one.

I've been wanting to scrap this photo for a while now & I thought the colours in this Scheme were perfect. For my Testimony I wrote my own 4 line poem about how I felt about seeing in real life a lot of the places I've only read about.

 I love the little balustrade from Prima :) The green button at top left is actually one of several lovely handmade ceramic buttons I purchased at the V&A Museum in London.

Thanks for dropping in & I hope you get to have a go at solving the Case File for this week :)

CSI: Case File #124

Hello again & thanks for calling in. I have another Case File to share for this weeks challenge at CSI: Colour, Stories, Inspiration  The Scheme for this week really threw me for a while, until I discovered the beautiful photos that my DD had sent me from the Keukenhof Gardens near Amsterdam. And as it is Spring time in the Northern Hemisphere (jealous much!), there's no better time for visiting the Netherlands. Here is the Case File:

So you can see what I mean about the colours! They are very pretty, but very far removed from my usual palette. When I decided to use these photos, & mind you it was extremely hard to choose from the dozen plus photos that she took at these amazing gardens, I wanted to make sure that the photos themselves were the focus. So here is how I solved the case:

All the flowers I've used here were originally white, which I sprayed with Glimmer Mist to match the colour scheme. The plum coloured leaves & title are cut from my Cricut machine then coloured. I've also used a bit of plasterers tape & lots of inking & Gelatos. In solving the case I used 7 fun facts about the Gardens.

I used Liquid Pearls for the flower centres & added a couple of die cut butterflies. The design for the page came to me in the middle of one of my sleepless nights :/

Thanks for looking & I hope you get to play along this week.

CSI: Colour, Stories, Inspiration Case File #123

I'm back again today with some inspo as a Special Deputy over at CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration This week's Case File really through me and I had a brain strain trying to get my head around the colours. But when I finally found the photo that I wanted to use, as usual the actual challenge was quite easy. Here is the Case File:

And her is my take:

This pic was taken last year when we stopped at the Three Sisters in Katoomba for a coffee break. It was such a beautiful day & we had a clear view of the magificent valley below for miles & miles. And for once there weren't a million tourists to contend with :)

I've used the good 'ol Kaisercraft Base Coat, some 2Crafty chipboard wire, Prima flowers & Grapevine Wreath die from Memory Box. The Flair is from A Piece of Cake Designs, the bird is from Kaisercraft and the background pp is Echo Park & Stampin' Up!

Drop into CSI this week & check out all the lovely designs from the DT. If that doesn't get your mojo happening, nothing will!

TFL xx

CSI Case File #122

My gosh the weeks are flying by! It's spinning me out :/  This weeks Case File at CSI: Colour, Stories, Inspiration is up & running. A beautiful colour scheme I must say & a very different sketch from Page Drafts just to keep life interesting.

I had the perfect papers in my stash for this Case File; Kaisercraft "Miss Empire" collection, which I got the whole collection on special (along with the die cut package) from Spotlight a while ago. The colours have turned out a little different to what they are IRL, so excuse the fact that the green looks a tad bluish in these pics instead of the lovely green in the Case File. Here is my Special Deputy layout for this week:

I was also fortunate enough to land at Spotlight at the very time they had a sale on all their American Craft Thickers & I picked up a pack of this lovely font for $5!  Gotta love that!

                                      

Now I have a confession to make. Over Easter a lovely lady dropped in a big bag of little chocolate Easter eggs at my place of work for all the staff to share. Some of them were wrapped in a very nice shade of orange/rust foil. So of course I had to eat them just so I could put this pretty coloured foil in my "stash". And low & behold it was a perfect match for this colour scheme. So I die cut the little butterflies using said foil & added a little orange bling on their bodies.

Please head on over the CSI for more inspo from the very talented Design Team. Thanks for looking :)

CSI #121

Winter has well & truly arrived today with no gradual easing us into it :(  Rain & freezing temperatures, but a perfect day for some serious creations. I have been lucky enough once again to be asked to be a Special Deputy for CSI: Colour, Stories, Inspiration for the month of May. The new Case File has gone live:

More beautiful colours, although colours which I don't normally work with a lot, but here it is:

 This is where we stayed when we visited London. In the top photo you can actually see some blue sky - never lasted long though, hence why I've chosen the colour gray as my background. The intricate gates remind me of the gates at the entrance to Kensington Gardens/Hyde Park which was only a 5 minute walk from here. And the chippy street light is also a reminder of the street scenes we saw. I've used vellum as the glass in the lamps.

We were on the third floor with windows that looked down onto the street. When our DD visited us every evening after work, she would stay for dinner & her Dad would then walk her to the Tube Station (if her partner wasn't with her). I would stand at the window waiting for her to look up which she always did, give her a big wave, then they would disappear around the corner. It's funny how quickly we get into little habits, even while on holidays, & it's little things like this that stick in my mind. Unfortunately our apartment was a "studio" so didn't lend itself to having someone stay over & DD is house-sharing, so we weren't able to actually stay with her, but we saw her everyday anyway.

As per the Case File, I have journalled 4 interesting things about my photos.

Thanks for looking & I hope you get a chance to play along at CSI this week. Or at least go & check out the amazing inspiration by the Design Team.

CSI #112 Final layout as February Special Deputy

Hello everyone. If you are living in the land of Oz, today is a great day for creating - cloudy, showery, windy & cool. Perfect creating weather!  It's hard to believe that February has come to an end and we will be saying goodbye to Summer very soon :(  I've had a fun month being a Special Deputy for CSI: Colour, Stories, Inspiration thanks to Debbi Tehrani for the opportunity.  Here is this week's Case File:

A beautiful colour scheme to work with, conjuring up images of long, tropical summers. Here is my take & the photo is from Pinterest.

This photo doesn't do the page justice, as the teal colour is more vibrant IRL. I have stencilled onto the background with white paint over a hibiscus Heidi Swapp mask. Hard to see here unfortunately, then I also stamped randomly with a Kaisercraft stamp. The "daydream away" words are from Craft Queen. The yellow netting behind the photo was used in a flower arrangement I recently recieved so I decided to upcycle it. The "Dream" stamp is from Darkroom Door.

Sigh!.....one day.....

Thanks for dropping by & I hope you get a chance to play this week :)

CSI Case File #111

Hello everyone. I'm a bit behind in my blogging, but I've had trip to Sydney to deal with this week as well as work so hence of my tardiness. Here is this weeks Case File over at CSI and I must say that The Scheme this week had me thinking. Here is the Case File:

And here is what I did with it:

For the background I've used Gesso to tone down the Orange colour and then I used a stencil with some lovely new 3D Paint from Craft Queen in brown. One of my fave new products, this pain has glittery look and when applied gives an embossed feel. It looks fantastic when used with stamps on cards etc.

Here is the touch of pink that I've added as per The Scheme.  This is a pic of my girl and a friend who was visiting them from Oz. They were on a road trip between Munich and Berlin and came across this lovely field of sunflowers. The colour in this photo is more vibrant in real life, however I've desaturated it to suit my layout.

TFL xx

CSI Case File #110

The next Case File is up over at CSI: Colour, Stories, Inspiration and it is a truly lovely colour scheme to work with this week along with another great sketch from Page Drafts. This is my design as a Special Deputy for February.

I've designed the photo layer to be lifted to reveal journalling underneath. I used one of the prompts from the testimony criteria for my title and journalling. As you can see I've flipped the sketch around.

I love these pics of the gang in front of the old stone wall with Autumn leaves at their feet shining bright with colour. I used my photo of the bridge linking the two main photos. As I said, a lovely colour scheme and easy to work with so give it a go if you can.

TFL :) xx