Happy Easter!

I hope you are all having a wonderful Easter weekend. It's pretty quiet here at my house, so I thought I'd make a start on some travel pics that our girl has sent to us. I love these two pics of her with some iconic London landmarks and she looks so happy and excited to be there, despite the extremely cold weather.

The pp and embellies are from Ruby Rocket and I've stamped and glimmer misted the background paper.

The red phone box is a stamp from the "Feeling Sentimental" set that I got as a freebie in the recent Stampin' Up! Sale-a-bration promotion. I've coloured it with grey & red markers then stamped onto cardstock and I've bent it in the middle and used foam tape to 3D it.

For the bunting I've used pre-made flags from Ruby Rocket and also I've cut little flags from some Union Jack ribbon which I purchase from the lovely Nicole at Craft Queen.

Thanks once again for dropping by xx

Use Your Stuff March Challenge

It's fabulous Friday once again and I've had time to do a very quick challenge for Use Your Stuff
The point of the Use Your Stuff site is to do just that - use up all our old paper and embellies that we've had in our stash for way too long.


This is the sketch:

I pulled out a sheet of paper that's been in the bottom of my paper drawer for goodness knows how long, some old buttons and brads and then I got started. This layout has clean lines & quite basic to what I normally do, but I liked how I could fit four 4x6 photos on the page with some space left over.

I glued some paper napkin onto my title and when it was dry I tore it off in places and then painted over it with some more glue to set it and then sprayed the whole word with glimmer mist and inked the edges for highlight. It actually looks like it's been stamped.

So that's my effort for today. Hopefully I'll be motivated enough tomorrow to be more adventurous.
TFL xx

Scrap the Boys March Challenge

This month's challenge over at Scrap the Boys is:
* 2 photos
* Chipboard
* Washi tape
* Mists/paints

I think I've covered all the criteria:

So there's a bit of chipboard on here from 2Crafty & Stuff to Scrap, buttons & cogs from Prima, PP from KaiserCraft, Kazzaz & Bazzill, and Francheville washi tape. Misting as well.

Until next time TFL xx

Confessions of an insomniac

So at 3.30 a.m., wide-eyed and not so bushy-tailed, I decided to get creative instead of just thinking about entering the latest challenge over at http://thepaperplayers.blogspot.com.au/  My justification for this was that if I got it out of my head then I would be able to go back to sleep. So here it is now 5.15 a.m. and still sleep eludes me so I may as well get this up on my blog.

As usual, what I have in my head and what actually ends up on paper are two different things. I think my mind and my hands sometimes belong to completely different bodies. Anyhoo this is the challenge:

I've used the colours Island Indigo, my fave Pool Party, Kraft & Whisper White. A bit of embossing, punching and inking, Pool Party & Crumb Cake ribbon & some pearls & there you have it - a creation from deep within the night.

Thanks for calling in & please do visit again :)

Craft Queen Kit...

Recently I was lucky enough to attend the Melbourne Scrapbook & Papercraft Expo. As well as attending a couple of great classes I also did a bit of shopping - surprising I know!!! The lovely Nicole from Craft Queen http://www.craftqueen.com.au had the best stall by far & I bought a kit designed by the lovely Kim Ewins http://lifeisabalancingactx8.blogspot.com.au/. I really liked the colour tones in this kit & all the little embellies that came with it. Instructions were also supplied with the kit which I did follow, but I also made the layout my own by changing a few things to suit my photo.

Except for the brick background mask & the stamped quote, everything else was supplied in the kit, even the lovely canvas which I used for my journalling. I also matted the title onto vellum to make it stand out more. Thanks Kim & Nicole for such a lovely kit!

House work can wait....

Hello all! After a long, hectic week I thought I should get stuck in & clean the house but decided to do some creating instead. But the weeks are going way too fast & of course I've missed the deadline for the challenge over at http://thepaperplayers.blogspot.com.au/
So I made my creation based on the challenge anyway. The challenge

And here is my contribution that didn't quite make it:

Regal Rose is one of my favourite Stampin' Up! colours besides Pool Party but I wasn't sure how to go about adding Early Espresso & Lucky Limeade, so I dediced less was more with those two colours. This is one of the quotes in the "Feel Goods" stamp set from Stampin' Up! I've also used one of the new stamps from KaiserCraft.

Thanks for dropping by again & have a great weekend xx

Last post for a while.....promise!

I am on such a role this weekend, only because I won't get to do any creating for another couple of weeks at least as I'll be working full time for a while :(  So I put this layout together at the last minute. I'm so behind in keeping up with my photos so I wanted to make the most of this weekend. I was even able to fit in a little bit of gardening as well, I don't know how - I must have plucked the time out of my proverbial!!!

I really loved Elise's enthusiasm this year, probably because she was leaving her homeland only a week later.  Tim was leaving the next day, so we made the most of the weather & our time together before we had to all say goodbye. After the obligatory cricket match, I was happy to see the two of them revert to their childhood shenanigans for just a little while. And I don't think Elise took that ridiculous hat off all day :)

White with 1 March Challenge

Good morning folks! Yesterday I worked on my challenge for http://whitewith1.blogspot.com.au/ The criteria for this monts is White + brown + doodling.  Here is my take:

I've doodled around the edges of the page, the quote & the title. I've also printed the pic on canvas.

I've used the napkin technique that I learnt at the Expo as the background pattern paper. Thanks for looking xx

Full reveal....

Ok, so here is the finished product. I think I'm okay with how it ended up. As sometime happens, there were a few things that I had to change from my original idea to make it work. A little like life really, we usually have to compromise somewhere along the line. I know I've used this photo before, but it's the only summer photo I have of the three of them together (Elise & her partner Steve, & Tim). They look so care free in this photo & it was the most perfect summer's day (actually New Year's Eve), and it has now become one of my favourite photos. 

I've flipped this canvas over to use the back of it & covered it with the new Base Coat Collection from Kaiser Craft. I've used gesso over the top, some corrugated cardboard, Tattered Angels Mist & Structure paste. This is the paste that Angela Peardon introduced me to at the Melbourne Expo. I also raised the photo with some foam mount, which is a tad hard to see in the photo.

So I've covered the word Beach with Structure paste (which didn't take too long to dry) then misted it with red, aqua & brown & then I dabbed it with a "wet one" to dilute the colours & make them blend together better. I'm so happy with the outcome. I've also used the paste at the bottom of the canvas & inked it with brown ink to make it look a little like sand.
Thanks for looking & I'll be back tomorrow with my entry in this month's White with 1 challenge.xx

Sneak Peek

Good morning all. I've had a project sitting in my cupboards for yonks waiting for me to come up with some inspiration. After my big clean out I decided to set my mind to this project finally. However I'm not sure if I'm quite happy with the finished product yet, but here is a little peek at what I've created so far:

So when I'm satisfied that it doesn't need anymore "tweeking", I'll post the full reveal. And oh so much fun to get my new room messy :)

The Orange Paperie & Co March Challenge...

I truly can't get my head around the fact that it is March already. So I'm starting the month off by getting stuck into some challenges. The challenge for http://www.orangepaperieandco.blogspot.com.au/ this month is to use hexagons & stamping. So here is my take:

This is our beautiful Elise when she was bridesmaid for a good friend of hers from her Uni days, last November. I love her smile in this pic. I've used Webster's Pages as the background & toned it down with some white paint & the hexagons are from My Mind's Eye - so pretty. I've also used chipboard from 2Crafty (title) & Twiddly Bits (fence) with some inking & misting. I've stamped the right hand side of the page with one of the new Kaiser stamps & also in the upper left corner & Kaiser bling flourishes. The little flowers & "love" ticket are from Stampin' Up! The lovely butterfly is something I picked up last week at the Melbourne Scrapbook Expo. As usual here are the closies:

 It's always fun to do a "girly" page don't you think? Thanks for dropping by xx

Use your stuff challenge

A chance to use up some of my stash by entering the challenge over at http://useyourstuff.blogspot.com.au/ The challenge is "Summer". This is a page I did recently for Nicole's Craft Queen blog to show off some of her new ribbons. But it's also a chance use some old paper, alphas & button.

TFL xx

Back to the real world

Hello again everyone! Well I'm back from my trip to Melbourne & I must say that I had a grand time down south. I like Melbourne so much more than Sydney.....wide streets, plenty of parks, beautiful alleys with great cafes & restaurants, very well-dressed people & the list goes on. And of course I took heaps of photos too. One of the many highlights of my trip was the time I was able to spend at the first Melbourne Scrapbook & Papercraft Expo at the beautiful Royal Exhibition Centre.

I took two classes; one with the lovely Angela Peardon & the other with my friend Kim Ewins from Orange. I was so lucky to be able to book into Kim's class at the last minute. However this Expo was a tad quieter than the one held in Brisbane in June, which was lucky for me because I attended on the first day (Friday) & I ended up with Angela all to myself! Wow! a one-on-one class with this very talented lady. It was so lovely chatting & getting to know her. I won't waffle on anymore I promise, but here is the layout I did with Angela.

This was so much fun to do. I learnt a new technique & was introduced to a few new products which I hadn't used before. Angela showed me how to use paper serviettes to make my own background. So the pretty flowers & bird in the background are actually cut from a serviette & blended onto the background paper with fine "napkin glue". It looks more fantastic IRL. The background behind the ships wheel had Structure paste added to it & then inked. Structure paste is like Texture Paste only very gritty, so it gives a great textured feel to a project e.g. as sand etc. All the chipboard is from Scrapmatts - gotta love that! Here are some closies:

Next is the page I did in Kim's class. The reason I like to take classes at these events is to get me out of my comfort zone & Kim's class really did that! I love Kim's style & I was so excited to have a go at it. Now if you know me well enough you will know that I hate sewing (much to my Mother's disgust). I don't even own a sewing machine. But I do really love the look of stitches on a scrapbook page so I usually hand sew with embroidery thread or the like. But Kim got us onto the sewing machine & I machine stitched for the first time on my layout & photo - I was a bit scared that I would break the machine! I didn't have time to finish the page during the class so I finished it at home. I changed the wording to how I was feeling at the time - sorry Kim. I'm really happy with the end result.

And closies of course:

I loved doing all the distressing on this & Kim had us using some canvas as well, which distresses really well.
Thank you to the lovely Kim & to Nicole from Craft Queen, I had a blast!