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

SCRAP 365

I'm back today to share a layout I created for the November Sketch Challenge at SCRAP 365. I've been following Scrap 365 for a while now and they always seem to have a great sketch to get my mojo started. So here is the sketch for November:

And here is my take:

I love creating "girly" pages and there's nothing more girly than going to a special High Tea with my friends. It was such a gorgeously perfect Spring day with an endless blue sky, magnificent views over the town, spring flowers, champagne, yummy treats and lots of cups of tea from beautiful china tea cups.  I've had this lovely Manor House flower in my stash for a few years so I was a bit excited to be able to finally use it. I played around with the background using Gesso, Texture paste with a stencil, a hot pink Gelato & a Prima stamp. I would have loved to have had a little teapot embellie but sadly there wasn't one to be found amongst my embellishment stash :(  There is also a few goodies from D-lish Scraps on this page.

So that's my effort for this whole week. I've had to cut back a bit on my creativity because of work commitments unfortunately, but I hope to catch up a little over the weekend. Thanks for looking & I'd love to hear from you....don't be shy :)

Sketchabilities #125

I'm so loving being on the Design Team for SKETCHABILITIES. Karan is so good at getting one's mojo flowing with her fantastic sketches. This mid-month sketch is no exception and as soon as I saw it I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it.

I love the layering on this sketch and of course I'm a sucker for a "cluster" or two :)

I'm sorry I've had to blot out the faces of my DD's two friends but I didn't get around to asking their permission to post this on the internet - trust me when I say they are really gorgeous young ladies. This pic was taken at a little village outside of Verona, Italy, last year at another friend's wedding. And because the girl's dresses were all solid (non-patterned) colours it was very easy to match papers & embellies - gotta love that! Thanks girls :D

You can't go past a lovely "After 5's" flower from D-lish Scraps. I think I may have these lovelies in every colour. The pearl & diamante centres really set them off.

I do hope you get to have a go at this sketch. Looking forward to seeing your creations! TFL xx

Scrap Africa mid-month Challenge

Well hello again. It's seems like ages since I've posted here but as hit happens it was only a week or so ago. My life has been a bit crazy in between so it feels a lot longer. Once again mid-month has come around which means another great challenge is up & running over at SCRAP AFRICA.

This challenge is:

If you are like me, you tend to make a lot of lists. If I don't make a list, things that I intend to do are often forgotten. And I'm a tad anal about being organised so I am definitely a "list maker".  For this challenge I wanted to make a list of something more personal. My "Word" for this year is "Gratitude". I've been reading a lot about how gratitude can greatly change my outlook on life and how powerful this one word can be to the way I see and react to different situations. So every day I find something that I am grateful for, which in turn reminds me that I should live in the moment - not thinking about the future too much and never worrying about what has passed. For instance today I'm grateful for this magical spring morning and the fact that I am on the Design Team for the fabulous Scrap Africa. I'm also grateful today for having the freedom to share my creations on a blog and being free to create whatever I want. I'm grateful today my family's good health. I'm also grateful because hump day is over and it's almost the weekend.

So here is my "Gratitude" page:

My list is hidden in the background with the little tab "look".  It reads:

10 things I am Grateful for: 

·         A fantastic husband & our two wonderful children.

·         Our good health.

·         Our beautiful house & garden.

·         Living in Australia - the most beautiful, amazing Country in the World.

·         Having good jobs.

·         Supportive friends.

·         Good food on our table.

·         Opportunities to travel.

·         The friends I have made during my creative journey.

·         Freedom: to be whom I want & to pursue what interests me.

   

   Your list can be about anything you want and I'd love to see what you come up with. So call into the Scrap Africa Blog and check out the other DT's creations and have a go yourself. TFL xx

Cardabilities #108

Hello again! Here in Oz we're having a short week thanks to the long weekend, so I thought I had heaps of time this week but in actual fact it's Tuesday already. Anyway I made a start on my Christmas cards over the long weekend and I have this new fab die that I wanted to try out. I've also been wanting to enter a challenge over at CARDABILITIES, so I decided to combine my Christmas card with the new challenge.

As usual I had trouble getting the light just right for this pic :(  The background is made from a "Crafty Ann" die. It's the first time I've used this particular brand so it took me a while to get my "sandwich" for the Big Shot just right. You can see how intricate the pattern is.

Once again I have gone with Aqua/white/silver as a colour scheme this year - but I have made some cards in the tradional colours as well. The flowers are the "Vintage Floret" die from Heartfelt Creations and the snow flakes are from Die-namics. I filled the flower centres with micro beads - a very messy/fiddley job I must admit. I also embossed the sentiment with silver embossing powder.

Here is another card I made with the same die but with plain white cardstock:

Thanks for looking. There is some wonderful creations by the DT over at Cardabilities so pop on over and have a look :)

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

It's Scrap Africa time...

As I said in my previous posts, the beginning of the month is always a busy time in the paper creation world so I'm back again today with the new challenge over at SCRAP AFRICA. There is so much inspiration to be taken from this new challenge and we have some fabulous Guest Designers so I hope you can pop on over to the blog and check them out.

I took my inspiration from the setting sun and the colours and came up with this card.

I inked this card up with a brayer using two different coloured inks and a circle template for the sun. I then over stamped with the trees and birds and then I ran it through the Big Shot using a script embossing folder. Added ribbon, button, leaves & flowers. I do hope you can play along with this one :)

Thanks for dropping by :) xx

D-lish Scraps October Inspiration....

Hello again, I'm making a concerted effort to get my DT posts up to date this morning as I'm in the process of spring cleaning and the quicker I get that out of the way, the sooner I can get back to doing what makes me happy. Amanda from D-LISH SCRAPS has given us the prettiest inspiration board to work with this month. Once again, a bit out of my comfort zone with the bright colours but sooooo worth the effort. Check it out:

Isn't it just D-lish!  :D    The colours, the polka dots, the sketch.....how can you resist having a shot at this?!

I couldn't resist scrapping this photo of Elise having the time of her life on a scooter on the island of Vis in Croatia. It's such a fun, happy photo & the inspo board was perfect for it. I used the sketch as well (optional). I find that I use the brightly coloured D-lish bags a lot for my photo matting of late. The black & white stripe is a bitty bag as well. The flowers, black sequin bow & pink doily are all from D-lish as is the date tag. Other products are: washi tape, pp from Simple Stories and American Craft thickers.

I'm so in love with the D-lish "After 5's" flowers. I think I may have them in every colour and Amanda's little sequined bows are very cute and dainty. I really hope you get time to have a go at this Inspiration Board, especially if like me, you don't normally do "bright colours".

Thank you once again for stopping by. Let me know what you think of the lovely D-lish products that I've used here.

It's Sketchabilities time.....

Happy hump day and happy 1st October! And can anyone tell me how September managed to sneak by? But on the up side is that the first of the month brings lots of exciting new challenges here in my creative world. Karan over at SKETCHABILITIES has released a new sketch for you to try your hand at. This is another fun sketch to kick start your mojo for the month:

I must admit that this one had me stumped at first. I love hexagons and once I sat down to go through my old paper stash and off cuts I realised that I had some little hexagons left over from a previous project. I combined them with some Kaisercraft pp and this is the result:

I used some texture paste and a stencil and ink on the background as well. I thought the clocks/keys on the background paper worked well with the photos. I used a few dabs of Glimmer Glaze on the title and flicked some around on the background.

                            

I don't know how many goes we had at taking this photo, but it was only 4.30pm and we were losing the light very quickly. But I didn't want to leave without getting a pic of us with Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament all lit up for the evening. We tried with the flash, without the flash, in night mode etc etc. Luckily I was able to get one good shot amongst the dozen of photos we took - I so love digital photography :)

I'd love to see your entry over at Sketchabilities. Pop on over to the blog and check out the other lovely inspiration by the design team.

Thanks for dropping by......leave a comment if you can :)