SBT50 November Challenge

The SBT50 challenge this month was a fab mood board. I loved the colours and they worked perfectly with my Scrappy Canary October kit. It even included pineapple paper!

So, here's the mood board:

And my take:

And some close ups. The doily came in my pocket letter (a swap being run over at Scrapping Clearly) from Jen Hall, the camera diecut was part of the kit and that's a Flutterby flair.

I also added a Charms Creations chevron in two shades of pink, a fabulous glittery cog from Burdy's Embellies and a cute heart button I've had since the dawn of my scrapbooking life.

Thanks for stopping by. Tomorrow is a new month and that means new challenges :)

Scrapbooking Top 50 September Challenge

This month SBT50 has a tic tac toe challenge:

Here's my take:

Just like in the real game I had a few false starts before I completed a row. I started with glitter, moved to arrows and then completed leaves, washi and strip journalling.

The funky paper and moulded flowers are part of a new release from CTMH, The bow, doily and arrow are from D-lish Scraps.

And the awesome leaf is from Rainbow Splendour. In excellent news Rainbow Splendour is having a new release tomorrow. New goodies and old favourites - yay!

I took this selfie as I headed back to work after 175 long days of medically-enforced leave. The strip journalling gives a glimpse of what I was thinking and feeling but I also included some journalling on the project life card tucked behind the photo.

The journalling reads: Gosh! Look at those wrinkles... I guess that's what happens when you have a knee replacement that goes wrong, lose (and then find) your daughter in a cyclone, have another knee procedure - more painful than the last, your son starts Year 11 and more. So much more...

This year has been tough. My knee still isn't right. I don't know if it ever will be but on this day it was nothing but blue skies!

I hope you've been celebrating the blue sky days too. Life is short and can change in an instant, don't take it for granted xx

Scrapbooking Top 50 August Challenge

SBT50 had a photo prompt as their challenge this month. It was full of fun bright colours and geometric shapes.

That green circle in the top left of the photo immediately made me think of the green shower cap Zoe wore while making a preemptive strike against any and all head lice upon her return from Vanuatu. Turns out she didn't have any but boy the smell of the treatment took the entire family back to those long nit-infested years of primary school - shudder!

Here's what I did with the challenge and the photo! Am I making you itchy yet?

Thanks for stopping by - I hope you celebrated the end of Winter today - bring on Spring, I say!

Charms Creations August challenge

You may have worked out by now that I have a wee addiction to Charms Creations. It's true I haven't seen one I don't love. Each time Charm has a sale I tell myself I'm going to be strong and resist and that I have enough in my stash to last a lifetime but then she brings out a new design and I am lost. But in reality it's money well spent, Charm's gorgeous creations go with everything - no matter what your scrappy style. I went on a retreat last weekend and all but two of my layouts featured a Charms Creation - putting that stash to good work!

Charms had another sale this week with a tantalising new embellie - the terrific tab - and I could shop without fear as I was lucky enough to win a Charms voucher over at SBT50. Yay! I can't wait for that happy mail to arrive :)

But in the meantime, I'm going to share my creation for Charm's August challenge. This month it was DYI and the creative team created the most divine examples of how you can alter a these fab embellies.

I decided to go with a straight inking option. I applied ink to my messy mat and spritzed it with water and then patted my arrow down. The colour came up perfectly!

And here's the whole layout.

These photos are pretty special, my first week back at running group after my knee replacement and I love the colours in these CTMH papers and those  thicker words are fab too. Most of all I love that cute cloud - also a Charms Creations but I just don't love this LO. It looks really flat, I added the pen outlines and that help lift it but it's still missing something - not sure what - any ideas gratefully received! It makes me a bit sad that I don't love it but you can only spend so much time staring at one LO and at least I have plenty more Charms Creations to be getting on with :)

Thanks for stopping by.

SBT50 June Challenge

I managed to squeeze one last challenge in today. I love the bright colours of the SBT50's mood board.

This challenge was a perfect match for a photo I took on Saturday. 117 days after my surgery the swelling in my knee had finally gone enough to fit back into my jeans - oh happy day!

The photo is a bit dark and shadowy as I took it inside after dark but that's what you get when you finish a challenge right at the last minute ;-)

Thanks for stopping by.

Scrapbooking Top 50 May Challenge

This month SBTop50 has an awesome sketch - love its clean lines and simplicity.

I moved a few of the elements around to suit my photo but I kept my LO clean and simple like the sketch.

The orange foam embellies are from Burdy's Embellies - love all of Vicki's foam embellishments, they are so good for that extra something on an Angus page. There's a sale on right now and the new glitter cogs are too good to miss. So, what are you waiting for? Check it out :)

Not many days left in the month and so many challenges still to be tried...

Thanks for stopping by!

Scrapbooking Top 50's April Challenge

Both the kids were at friends' houses overnight so after Rob left for work at early hour of 7.10am I got myself a coffee (still on decaf but it's the process that counts) and sat down to scrap. I knew exactly what challenge I wanted to do and which photo suited the theme.

Scrapbooking Top 50 has one of the best challenges I've seen in a long time - a word prompt. So many option with this one.

Here's my LO. It was one of those LOs that just came together. As well as the word happy I decided to use some yellow highlights. This is Angus tucking into the pizza he crafted and then cooked in the barbecue. Cooking makes Angus happy.

The paper is from Stampin' Up - I won it in a lucky door prize. The washi tape, the little bag and the journalling spots are from the February D-lish Scraps just add paper kit. The other embellies are a Charm's Creation arrow, some super cool cogs and arrow strip from Burdy's Embellies, a Sawyer's Place flair, a button from my button jar, some enamel dots and a splattering of Dylusions black marble ink spray.

And now I'm off to do my knee exercises AGAIN and then I think I'll do some more creating.

Scrapbooking Top 50 Mood Board

One of my favourite forums closed down in January. I think it may have been the last forum still operating. I spent a lot of time at Scrapbooking Top 50 and always enjoyed the scrappy chat as well as their monthly and cybercrop challenges and their fabulous and incredibly creative competitions. It was the end of an era but the Vicki and Chloe haven't disappeared completely, they're continuing the Top 50 tradition with a monthly competition on their blog. February's challenge is a mood board.

Here's my take, my little niece and nephew dressed in their traditional Japanese costumes. Hopefully you can see I was inspired by the colours and textures.

Thanks for stopping by.

Scraplift cybercrop

This month the cybercrop over at Scrapbooking Top 50 is a scraplift challenge.

I had loads of fun doing all three challenges.

Challenge one - Bernii Miller

And my version:

Challenge 2 - Sophie Kochmann

And my version:

Challenge 3 - Raquel Bowman

And my version:

Thanks for stopping by :)

Top 50 April Sketch

Chloe created a great sketch this month over at Scrapbooking Top 50. I love it when a LO just comes together. I had a lot of fun pulling out some of my older My Vintage Blossoms embellies and adding some newer bits and bobs.

My journalling is on the hello tab - this pair are still inseparable - a regular mutual admiration society - both as reckless and fun loving as the other.

Scraptacular

Day 9 of my holidays and I finally got to drag with scrapping supplies out. Woohoo, happy days! I whipped up three layouts, not bad considering I had to go to the garage and dust off my tote first. 

This one is for the Top 50 sketch challenge - I flipped and rotated it. 

I'm a big fan of Dr Karl Kurszelnicki, the first documented use of the word 'selfie' is on his blog and he's now decided that a selfie with others should be called a groupie. I like it, hence my title! 

This month SFS had a massive four challenges to choose from. I've done the first two. They're all 1,2,3,4 challenges. Fun:)

Challenge 1

• ONE photo
• TWO word title
• THREE embellishments
• FOUR papers

I also added 5 sequins. 

Challenge 2

• One word title 
• Two pieces of Washi 
• Three Stars
• Four circle embellies

I knew it had been a while since I'd scrapped when I sprayed my stamp cleaning mat with blue tumble dye instead of stamping scrub - oops! The best bit is I cleaned the stamp before I realised my mistake...

High ho, it's off to scrap I go!