Z @ four

These adorable photos are of my youngest niece. She lives on the other side of the world and we talk to her via Skype but had only met her in real life once before. That was when her family came to Australia when she was two. So, it was great to catch up with her again when we went to North America for my parents' 55th wedding anniversary and family reunion last month.

When she is happy to have her photo taken she's a real poser, but she can be just as stubborn about not posing when she doesn't want to either. Thankfully I got these gorgeous shots of her having fun in the water one day. I thought these photos were just perfect for the latest Page Maps FancyPants sketch contest too.

I loved the simplicity of this sketch by Becky Fleck, and it really suits my style. The hardest thing was finding an embellishment to use instead of the jar. 

Once again, I'm using things from my stash. This is an old TLC Runway kit. The only things not TLC were the cutting dies that I used to make the branches (Memory Box - Woodland Branch 98187), the circular medallion (Nellie's Multi Frame MFD041), and the buckle in the top right hand corner (Memory Box - Locina buckle 98184).

With the circular medallion I love how when it's used with double sided paper that you fold the cut parts over and you get another colour or pattern showing through. It's probably not as obvious when both sides of the paper are patterned (like here), but if the back is a completely different colour, it can be quite stunning. I'm sure you'll see me use this one again.

Anyway, I'm very happy with how this layout turned out. I'd love to hear what you think!

Till next time, happy days.

Francine

Grandchildren - Youngest and Oldest

 

Here is my layout for this month's Scrap the Girls challenge. I used the monthly paper kit from my LSS, Wrapped in Paper, which just happened to have blue bling stars in it. I had some more pain ones I could add as well and so this layout was born.

Initially I was going to fussy cut the centre out of the paper as there was a frame of swirls and butterflies surrounding the paper, but in the end I decided against that when I found this sketch by Nadia Canizzo.

The girls in the photo are my nieces. This photo was taken at my family reunion in North America last month, and it just happens that the little one is the youngest grandchild, and the older one is the oldest grandchild. I think it's a beautiful picture of them both (not that you can tell with the pixellated faces, LOL!).

Fussy cut butterflies

As usual, I used my Big Shot and cut out the large doilies, and the smaller doilies, as well as the fanciful flourish from both the patterned paper and the blue cardstock. I also cut a few butterflies with my dies, as well as a couple of fussy cut ones from the paper. There is a partial label in the top let corner as well.

clothes peg body

The lace and flowers were in the kit, as was a small clothes peg. I took it apart, sprayed it with glimmer mist, tied some floss around it, and used it for the butterfly body. I also cut some large butterflies with my favourite butterfly die from Marianne Creations (LR0115), and used them as masks on the white cardstock background which I sprayed with blue and pink glimmer mist.  

For the title I used some Basic Grey ice blue letters. They weren't  really the right colour so I sprayed them with the same blue glimmer mist as I used on the background. The blue didn't come out the same, but at least it was closer than any of the other many alphabet letter stickers I own! 

Misted background

Please leave me a comment - it makes me feel that someone out there really is reading this, and anyway, I'd love to hear what you think of my layout.

Till next time, happy days!

Francine

55 years

It's been a while since I posted, but I have an excuse! We've been in North America for a month for a family reunion, and I've come back feeling very crafty, so this challenge from Scrappin' Patch to use your stash was right up my alley. I have so much in the way of paper and embellishments that I think I could continue scrapping for years without buying a thing!

The Challenge was to use this sketch by Annelie Maddock. I don't always use one photo sketches, but this one was perfect for the family shot from our recent family reunion. I used some cardstock and patterned paper from an old TLC kit, as well as some beige coloured mulberry (or handmade?) paper I found amongst my scraps. I had lots of fun going through my embellishment containers looking for brads, buttons and pearls too. I bought the Family cloth badge last year from one of those $2 shops, and the little lace flower came from a bag of similar lace bits that I bought at the Craft show last year.

 

Of course I couldn't make a layout without using my Big Shot and some dies, and used these:

Memory Box Chloe Stem (98321)

MFT Die-namics Clearly Sentimental Label

MFT Die-namics By the Numbers

Cuttlebug Baby Face alphabet (now discontinued)

and the lotus from Papertrey Ink Limitless Layers Circles (both small and large set). 

I like how it turned out, and hope you do too!

Till next time, happy days!

Francine