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!

D-lish Scraps monthly moodboard - August

Every month I purchase a D-lish Scraps Just Add Paper kit and every month I admire the gorgeous moodboard inspired by the colours in the kit. Most months I join the D-lish scraps cyber crop, sometimes I even finish all four challenges, I always use lots of my D-lish goodies but, I have never actually entered the moodboard challenge. Until now.

The colours in is this board are gorgeous and that sketch got me thinking... I have a photo of my daughter and her boyfriend dancing in the rain, it's a beautiful candid shot that captures the joy of the moment and also their feelings of freedom as they had just finished Year 12. I kept getting that photo out and smiling at it - especially since my beautiful girl is far away on her gap year adventure. But I just never had the right paper or the right sketch to do something special with that special photo. but then that moodboard spoke to me!

I've added some journalling on the little card in the chevron bag and used lots of gorgeous bits out of the JAP kit. Gosh I love that photo!

Thanks for stopping by :)

A Stuck?! Sketch

It's been awhile since I used a Stuck?! sketch but I really liked the look of this one and it was a perfect match for my photos.

I don't usually use themed paper but I thought this cute Graphic 45 paper was kind of cool and since I have a million photos of Angus and a variety of animals, it really felt like it was raining cats and dogs!

I kept the LO pretty simple adding a cluster made up of a D-lish arrow, Charms Creations heart, Studio Calico dog veneer, mini doily and a Flutterbys flair. I then sprinkled some CTMH enamel shapes and added a couple of Stampin' Up candy dots and some mist splats and I was done.

Thanks for stopping by :)

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.

Scrap the Girls - August

This month Scrap the Girls had a gorgeous mood board.

The combo of gold, pink and navy was too good to pass. I had this photo of Zoe from her 18th kicking around (yes, she did just turn 19) and the gold in the champagne was a perfect match.

The funny thing is Zoe doesn't drink but she demanded a champagne toast. I brought back some gorgeous bubbles duty free when I went to Hawaii so I cracked them opened. Zoe and her friend had one sip each and passed their glasses to Mum and I - good thing I had Mum there to appreciate the finer things in life.

That quote was along the bottom of the Kaiser paper - perfect right?! And that gold Bo Bunny mist looks amazing IRL, so rich and shimmery. I made a little cluster using a Charms Creations chevron and flower, a D-lish Scraps arrow clip, Stampin' Up resin flower and a Corbett Creations deer.

I really love how this turned out, Shame I took a wonky photo but the weather has been foul and I dashed outside between rain storms - less haste required - oh well...

Thanks for stopping by :)

D-lish Scraps Cybercrop - June

How funny, I just found this post in my draft list - not sure how it got forgotten. Oh well here it is now:)

Kaisercraft have opened a stored here in Canberra so, a couple of crafty friends and I trundled out for a visit. It's spacious and pretty and full of homewares (weird) with the scrapping stuff relegated to the back corner. Bagged my self a few bargains but then as the sales assistant was ringing up purchase she casually mentioned that another shopper had purchased 300 sheets of the patterned paper. Now admittedly this stuff was on sale for 50 cents but 300 pieces? And they were all different. Does that count as a lifetime supply?

Anyway enough of that...

I played along with the D-lish cybercrop - the challenges never fail to delight.Here's what I did.

Challenge one - the sketch challenge

Challenge 3 - tic tac toe

While at Kaisercraft I bought a packet of their cork sheets. I ran it through the bigshot with a hexagon die and oh my! it cut beautifully and the effect is gorgeous. You can see it to the right of the photo in the second LO. It adds texture and layers without weight, I definitely need some more of that in my life.

I've had that Charms Creation heart in my stash for ages as my daughter is not a pink gal but I love this colour combo and I was very excited to use that beautiful heart. I added some of the cork hexagons to my cluster as well.

Thanks for stopping by - happy scrapping!

July SUYS Challenge Reveal

Welcome to July! One month of Winter down - yay! Today is super foggy and gloomy and the rest of the week is forecast to have minus six starts - brrr!

But far more importantly, this month at SUYS we're showcasing your handwriting.

The design team all came up with very different takes on this challenge. Goodness me there are some stunning handwriting styles out there! But if you're like me and your handwriting is more serviceable than beautiful you might want to approach this challenge in a different way.

I recently bought a fabulous triangle template and it got me thinking about a LO featuring a triangular design. Which lead to this LO.

I used yet another one of my 50 cents Kaiser papers for the background and applied gel medium using my new template. Once that had dried I misted with Heidi Swapp colour shine in salmon, butter and ocean. I wiped over the gel medium with a baby wipe so I only had colour between the triangles. It's a bit hard to see in the photos but it created a nice shimmery effect and made the triangles stand out.

Once I'd worked out how my triangles of paper were going to work. I stitched between them and along the edges of my journalling triangles - which I created by cutting a PL grid card in two. I can't write in a straight line to save myself so I love these little guys. I tend to blame my writing and my wonky lines on being left handed but I have a feeling it's really about time, motivation and attention to detail. My brain is busy with other stuff!

Anyway I then stuck my triangles and mounted photo in place and added the fun stuff. A couple of crocheted flowers made by my lovely friend Becci and a little camera I created using a Stampin' Up diecut. I also used a D-Lish scraps paperclip, a couple of buttons I stole out of Janina's button bowl (it was on the table when we were scrapping, it was practically begging me to rifle through it) and a smattering of enamel dots.

The photo itself and the journalling are a bit of fun. Anyone who knows me will attest to my slightly obsessive tendencies when it comes to my kitchen bench, I admit to being in love with it and recognise my need for it to be clear of junk at all times (this really doesn't work as it's an excellent dumping ground apparently!).

Hope you're looking forward to a wonderful creative month. Don't forget to link up your take on the challenge over at the SUYS blog 

Stay warm!