Gotta love happy mail!

Happy Sunday! I received some happy mail last week and among the stash was the Kaiser Craft wooden Harbour Bridge & Opera House. I've been waiting on these so I could complete the pic of DH on top of the Bridge. The photo is quite large so I held back on the embellies a bit. I ran the chipboard letters through an embossing folder & was quite happy with how they turned out - with a bit of a grungy/metallic look by the time I dabbed them with a bit of ink. I splattered some red and white paint on the background as well. All in all, this page only took about an hour to complete - a record for me :)

As you can see the photo was taken on the day that the Bridge was closed to most traffic for road maintenance. DH said it was quite eerie being on the Bridge with barely any traffic noise.
Thanks for calling in xx

Another "just because"...

This week, and I really don't know how this happened given the week that I've had, but I managed to finish a layout during the week. My inspiration was the beautiful buttons & doily from Purple Pumpkin. I thought they lent themselves to some earthy tones & decided to use the photos I took of our offspring on their 21st birthdays - very hard to get nice pics of them these days :(  I've also had this lovely clock chippy in my stash for a while now & decided it was time I used it. I used a brick mask with texture paste on the background and then sprayed with glimmer mist. I made my own leaves using Stampin' Up! stamps & ink. Throw on a bit of muslin & pearl flourishes & "Bob's my father".....no, he really is!

And yes, I have just done a layout that wasn't for a challenge - highly unusual! :) Anyway thanks for dropping by, and if the mood takes you, please leave a comment :)xx

Sale time at Purple Pumpkin!

One of my fave places to visit (and shop) is http://purplepumpkincrafts.blogspot.com.au/

I'm lovin' Purple Pumpkin's buttons & seem to be using them on all my layouts at the mo, so I get very excited when they have their monthly sale - go check them out!

The Boxx Fortnightly Challenge

This is another pic I've been wanting to scrap for a while. This DH looking for the name of his cousin who was tragically killed in action in Vietnam. The f/n challenge over at the Boxx is an 85:15 challenge. 85% neutral colour + 15% colour of our choice. This was harder than I first thought because I just wanted to keep adding colour (red in this case). I also wanted to capture the serenity that permeates throughout the Memorial, so I had to hold back a bit on the embellies as well so as not to override the actual photo. I printed the first words from the poem " In Flanders Fields" by John McCrae (1915) directly onto the photo & printed the soldier & cross onto vellum & attached it to the photo. I thought that the quote was appropriate for this theme as well. I've used Gesso as the background & my Cricut for the alphas.

Thanks for visiting, have a great week :)

Happy Hump Day :)

Today I wanted to have a go at the March sketch challenge over at http://scrapsanity.com.au/. But I also wanted to keep plugging away at our holiday pics, so decided that the sketch more or less suited the photos I wanted to use. These photos are taken in Bamberg in Germany. The only cold day we had on our trip, and I mean it was freezing. The very next day was lovely warm spring weather again thank goodness. DH was very interested in all the old breweries here of course, so I left him to it & wandered around the Old Town on my own visiting little bakeries,  markets & the beautiful boutiques. I must admit I was glad to get back to the warmth of our Ship that day.

Unfortunately there is too much light on the right hand side of the page when I took this pic so it's not the best shot :(
I've used the lovely Bo Bunny Etcetera pps & Websters Pages alphas. Thanks for dropping by :)

Purple Pumpkin sketch challenge

Good morning, just wanted to load my entry in this month's sketch challenge for Purple Pumpkin before heading off to work. If you are like me & have never heard of a "Morph Suit" then this is an example. They are the funniest costumes, full body lycra with a zip up the back, no eye, nose or mouth holes. And yes you can apparently breath & even drink through it.....go figure. Anyway my DS used one for a dress up party recently. His was the camouflage suit. Apparently he kept hiding in the bushes at the party so no one could see him & then jump out of nowhere, running through the yard & scaring the you-know-what out of the other guests. I'm sure whoever had had too much to drink that night, may have decided to give up drinking altogether! :) So a bit of fun was had by all. I've used the Purple Pumpkin Xlarge soldier button on this page.

Hope you have a great day.

KIU March challenge

I hope you're all having a good weekend & why wouldn't you with this glorious weather :) I find myself being drawn away from my creation station to bask in the sunlight several times during the day (& pull a few weeds from the garden while I'm at it). The criteria for the March challenge over at Kraft it Up! is: 1 pce of kraft c/s or pp, 2 photos,  a 3 word title, 4 pces of different pps, 5 embellies. So here is my take.

The lovely owl button is from Purple Pumpkin & I've used pps from Stampin' Up! Thanks for dropping by. And I would love you to leave a comment :)

March White with 1 challenge

Happy Saturday, and what a beautiful day it is too! This month's challenge over at White with 1 is white + kraft + layering. I love white & kraft together so this was a lot of fun to play with. I started this page yesterday & left it overnight to simmer & this morning I added another layer. So this is the finished product.

And by the way, I have another layout published in this month's Australian Scrapbook Creations Mag. Very chuffed I must say. I used another photo of my DD taken by the talented Steve Hill (thanks for providing my inspiration Steve). This mag is a terrific source of inspiration with lots of layouts by some very talented scrapbookers & I'm very humbled to be published alongside of these wonderful ladies.

Have a great weekend :)

Some Everyday Enchantment

Like I said.....I'm back with the layout I did over the weekend for the March Sketch Challenge over at The Boxx. It just needed some "tweeking" before posting. I've used the beautiful Everyday Enchantment pp from the current Stampin' Up! Sale-a-bration catty with matching ribbon & brad. I've been dying to use this paper and equally so the photo of my sweet girl (photo by Steve Hill). And of course I had to add some butterflies :)

I've also used a little Maya Road clock & I think the branch is from Prima (could be wrong), and leaves from Craft Queen. Anyhoo, thanks for looking :)

Having fun with bright colours

Happy Sunday everyone. I had a small window of opportunity to get some washing dry before it rained again today and of course spent the rest of the day being creative. I managed to get a few projects completed this weekend; an off-the-page timber project, two challenges for March & two pages for our travel album. Not bad seeing as I also did some cooking & watched three movies over the weekend as well as the usual pantry re-stocking, ironing and a bit of cleaning. So all in all, not a bad effort if I do say so myself :) I have another one of "those weeks" coming up so won't get back to my creation station until next weekend.
This page is my entry in the fornightly challenge over at The Boxx. We were to take our inspiration from some photos that Gina had posted. The lovely colours in the photos were my inspiration. I couldn't wait to scrap this photo of DS & his friends at a recent farewell party. They had so much fun in these costumes (although a bit too hot to stay in them for too long but time enough to get up to some shananigans in them!). Anyway I'm glad someone had the where-with-all to take a "before" photo. I downloaded the comic book icons from the internet and printed the second pic using the "comic book" option on my photo editing program.

I punched the stars with my Stampin' Up! star punch, stamped them with a background stamp & glossed them with Crystal Effects. I've used Pool Party, Calypso Coral & Island Indigo colours from the new Stampin' Up! In Colours. I thought the American Crafts puffy alphas were perfect for this page. Click on the photo for a close up.
 I'll be back tomorrow to post my entry for the Monthly Sketch Challenge on The Boxx. TFL xx