Hump Day Inspo

Happy Hump Day again! And what a beautiful spring day it is here!
I am coming to the end of our o/s holiday pics finally. Only a few more pages to go & I'm making a concerted effort to finish it off before I make a start on any other project. Budapest in Hungary was the last stop on our river cruise. We didn't really know what to expect but it turned out that Budapest is such a lovely place, especially the old town. We had two perfectly sunny days here & we were able to wander around the place by ourselves, which is what we really enjoy, because let's face it - getting lost is half the fun :)  Especially in a place where most people don't speak English. It's amazing how you can make someone understand that you have a horrible head cold & need something to relieve the congestion (via an unusual amount of hand gesticulation). I then had to ask one of the staff members on our ship to translate the instructions of the medication that I was eventually given at a local pharmacy, into English. Even they had trouble, because they were Polish :)
These pics are just two of about 50 photos I took in those two days. It is so picturesque from the top of the Fisherman's Bastion.

Our ship berthed along the Danube just near the Chain Bridge on the opposite side to Parliament House, so we had wonderful views, especially at night, of the old Castle, the Bridge, Parliament House & the City itself.
We were ever so sad to be leaving our floating Hotel, but we had 4 days in Prague to look forward to before heading home.
Thanks for dropping by.

Scrap the Boys & Bird is the Word Challenge

I've been wanting to scrap these photos for a few weeks now & when Bird is the Word http://birdisthewordchallenge.blogspot.com.au/ set their current challenge as the word "Story". I figured that it was a word I could associate with these photos.  Also this month I thought I would have a go at a challenge over at Scrap the Boys, http://scraptheboys.blogspot.com.au/ which is a sketch challenge this month. And seeing as I have so much trouble creating masculine pages, I thought it would help me along a little bit. Here is the sketch from Scrap the Boys:

And here is my entry along with some closies. I wanted to do a fair bit of journalling on this but didn't want to share it with all & sundry as it is quite personal, so I've made a booklet with more pics & my journalling underneath it. This is the first time I've really made a serious attempt at hidden journalling & I'm quite pleased at how easy it was to put this together.

 I placed a quote on the first page & then the journalling on the last page along with another photo.

Thanks for dropping by :)

SALE, SALE, SALE...

Yes I'm selling off some of my Stampin' Up! stamp sets to make way for the new. Even though I'm no longer a S/U Demonstrator, I still love their products & I still plan to keep them in my stash. So here is what's on offer. Please note that the prices do not include postage.

This "Flight of the Butterfly" wood-mount set is one of the first stamps sets I purchased. As you can see it has a matching punch which makes life easier. $35.00 including the punch.

"Language of Friendship" is another clear-mount set, USED slightly. There are matching punches available for this set in the current S/U catalogue if you have one. $15.00

If you are interested in purchasing any of the above, just email me - jotritto@hotmail.com
I will work out the postage when I receive enquiries.

A little bit of indulgence never goes astray

Happy Hump Day....again!
A few weeks ago my best girl & I went to the big smoke for a girly weekend of ballet & high tea. We do a "girls weekend" away every year, but this year we were limited to only one night, so we made the most of it. We had a little bit of shopping, plenty of laughs, solved the problems of the world, people watched & ate way too much. Then it was off to see the Russan Imperial Ballet.....what a civilised weekend!

We love doing High Tea once in a while. It's such a traditional thing to do, but I must admit it took us two hours to get through all the food so we didn't need to eat for another 24 hours :)

 I love this little chair by Scrapmatts that I bought at the Brisbane Expo & I've been waiting for some feminine inspiration so I could use it. The cup & saucer buttons are from Purple Pumpkin & flowers are Prima.....I think.

This little button is from the wonderful Carol at Tattered Inspirations. And I'm still getting a use out of the MME hexagon paper - so versatile.
Anyhoo, I hope you are enjoying this beautiful weather. I'll be back soon with a challenge page. TFL!

Happy Mail!

For my recent challenge win over at Kraft It Up! I received these lovely chippy goodies for my efforts. Thanks to the lovely people at 2Crafty for their sponsorship & for the beautiful goodies :)

Lots of goodies here to play with!

Paper Players Sept Challenge

Happy Thursday everyone & hasn't the weather been wonderful, although a little chillier today but I have high hopes for the weekend. I was asked this week to make "thank you" cards for a friend, so I thought I would incorporate one of them into this month's challenge for The Paper Players, which is a colour challenge.
http://thepaperplayers.blogspot.com.au/

These colours are not what I would normally use together, however I was surprised at how easily they came together ever though I was well out of my comfort zone.

I finally got around to using the Reason to Smile stamp set from the last Stampin' Up! Sale-a-bration. It is such a pretty set. Somehow I ended up with two sets, so one is brand new & unopened, so if anyone is interested in purchasing it just drop me a line :)
Thanks for dropping by & have a great day.

This one's a winner!

I was so excited to find out that I was one of the winners for the August Challenge over at Kraft It Up! This is the first time I've won a challenge on a dedicated challenge site!  And to make it even more exciting the prize is $20 worth of chippy products from 2Crafty! I so love playing with chipboard :) Now that's a great start to my week.....gotta love that!

Thanks Kraft It Up! Team!

What would a weekend be without a travel page?

I'm still plugging away at the travel album. Note to self....when one travels, one must not take so many photos!

The trouble is that I want to keep memories of our trip etched in my mind forever, but that won't be possible so you see I have to scrap them :) The beautiful doily I bought in Germany - so pretty.

I hope someone is enjoying my travel pics. Thanks for dropping by.

KIU! September Challenge

As I said, August was really a slack month for me in regards to scrapbooking. So I'm making up for it this month. This is my take on the challenge over at http://kraftitup.blogspot.com.au/

When I first saw this I thought that it would be easy-peasy......but no! it was a bit trickier that I first thought. I've had a bit of trouble bringing myself to scrap pics of my DS, mainly because I miss him so much & because I'm a sook I tend to shed a few tears every time I see his photo. I am so dang proud of him. However, I bit the bullet & scrapped a photo from his farewell party. I'm not quite happy with the way it turned out but at least it was progress so now hopefully I'll be able to go ahead & scrap a few more pages of his departure...sob :(

And a closie:

The lovely button is from Purple Pumpkin & the doily is from Tattered Inspirations.
TFL xx

Two birds with one stone...

Happy Saturday everyone! I've jumped right into the challenges this month. This page is covering Gina's fortnightly challenge over at the Boxx, which is a sketch challenge as well as Annette's September challenge over a http://www.orangepaperieandco.blogspot.com.au/ which is a recipe challenge.

I've replaced one of the photos with a journalling block for this sketch. The recipe challenge is a follows:
1 B&W pic, ribbon, chippy, inking,distressing & a two word title.  So I've inked & distressed my pp & the little chippy frame is also inked.

Thanks for dropping by once again & have a great weekend :)

Where oh where is the warm weather???

Yes I admit it has been a little warmer over the last few days, however it is Spring's way of giving us a false sense of security. Hence the forecast for more cold, windy weather in the coming days :(  However, it is a new month & so I'm attempting to catch up on my scrapbooking.

The photo I took of my son's shoes was just crying out to be scrapped. You may, or may not know that purple isn't my fave colour to scrap & I had the double dilemma of trying to keep it masculine. Anyway let me know if I succeeded;

I found the glitter cardstock in my stash that was perfect for this page. I also made my own tag & stamped it with the music notes.

In the mean time, I'm plodding along with our travel pics. This is the latest page:

This is one of the most beautiful towns we visited along the Danube, with wonderful views down to the river, as the town is built quite high. Cobblestone streets with quaint little stores selling traditional Austrian clothes, creamy ice cream, clocks, wine & shops with interesting little knick knacks. I haven't enhanced these photos at all, so the sky was really a vibrant blue this day. I have a whole stack of other photos of Durnstein, so I will do another post when I've finished with them. The age of the buildings in these towns, as well as the castles, is mind-boggling. We just couldn't get enough of wandering the streets here.

Thanks for dropping by again. I'd love to get some constructive feedback so feel free to leave a comment.
Enjoy your day :)