Kaleidoscope Scraps

What a Galah

2012-02-05T22:37:00.002+11:00

Here is my latest layout for Frosted Designs, Sketch Along Tuesdays Sketch #33. ~~Apologies for the photo, but it was taken at night. The colours are quite wrong - the cardstock base is dark grey and the patterned papers are more pink, rather than peachy.~~ I've uploaded better photos now that were taken during the day.

This is the sketch. I turned it 90 degrees.
All the papers are from my stash, as are the brads, sequins, beads and floss. I cut the bird out with a Stampin Up two step bird punch. The flower and leaf sequins around the circle's edge were attached with brads, but the other flower sequins were attached by sewing seed beads to their centres. To add some definition around the centre circle I stitched a grey floss border.
The flower printed vellum under the long pink paper strip was cut with a MFT wonky border die. I then embossed it with the Swiss dots folder.
The main part of the title was die cut with the Cuttlebug Baby Face die and placed on a die cut file tab, and the smaller part was printed on Dymo tape. Here are a few close ups.

Till next time, happy days!
Francine

(High School) Friends Together

2012-01-30T18:50:00.001+11:00

Here's my latest challenge entry for the Scrap the Girls monochromatic challenge. I really enjoy doing monochromatic layouts. Looking for papers and embellishments from my stash that are all the same colour is fun - once you decide on the colour, that its! I picked green for this challenge because that was the colour of my daughter's jewellery, and because of the trees in the background of the photos.
In my post about my White on white layout I explained that I have recently received a number of die cuts and embossed papers from a swap on the Crop Room. So I went looking at those swap items again and found the swirl embossed paper, the owl and the leaves. All three pieces were larger A2 embossed papers, generally meant for cards. I cut them up though, and used the rest of the owl for the mat under the single photo in the top left corner. Part of the non-embossed part of the leaf piece I cut with my wonky scalloped border die for the base of the title.

The embellishments:
buttons: Beutron
flower brads: unknown
floss: DMC

epoxy photo corner: Making Memories (from a Christmas set)
layered flower: unknown die cut, TLC Poppin Pieces flower, button and floss
large flower: unknown, but I put a Fancy Pants rub on on it
letters: Kaisercraft, Basic Grey
metal 'together' ribbon slide: unknown
rhinestones: Kaisercraft Basics

jute: coloured with Bamboo VersaColor ink. Note: I threaded the two buttons onto the jute through two diagonal holes. Then I taped down the buttons in the corners of the "frame" and taped jute on the underside of the cardstock. Then I marked where the other two holes in the buttons were and pierced two holes. I threaded a short piece of jute through these holes and tied it off on top of the button. I thought this would help to secure the jute "frame" in place.
ribbon: unknown, but this was the ribbon my daughter wore in her hair when these photos were taken
mini bows were made with a fork, with this fabulous tutorial

I used a Becky Fleck Page Map as the basis for this layout. It's the current sketch on the Page Maps challenge blog, but since I can't enter that challenge, I used the sketch for this one instead. I started off fairly true to the sketch but diverged a bit as I went on. All in all though, I really like the final outcome. Please leave me a comment and tell me what you think!
Till next time. Happy Days!
Francine

A letter to Kyaa

2012-01-27T17:51:00.001+11:00

I'm so proud of my daughter. She is growing into a lovelyyoung woman; responsible, sensible, and hard working among other things. Idecided to make a layout to hold a letter to her about how much I love her andhow proud of her I am. It just so happened that it also coincided with challenge #24 over at Use it Tuesday to do a layout about love, all while using upyour scraps! I've just discovered this challenge blog, and anything thatencourages me to use up what I have rather than buy more is a good thing!

So here's my layout.

Everything on it has been in my stash, some things for sixor seven years! The only new things I used are the cutting dies that I got forChristmas, but the paper I cut with them is from my stash. Let's see if Ican tell you all the products I used:

cardstock and purple patterned paper for large heart areboth from TLC kits from my TLC selling days
vellum from Paper Pleasing Ideas (now out of business) tocover chipboard K, top of the banner, flower stamens, and to make the letters for the title
chipboard K by Making Memories
cream/green patterned paper, rubons, ribbon, sticky backedpearls - unknown
Postmarks background stamp from Kaisercraft

Cutting dies used:

Cuttlebug Baby Face for letters (now discontinued?)
Cheery LynnDesigns Fanciful Flourish
Cheery Lynn Designs Heartland America Large (heart withribbon on K, heart between the photos and doily flowers at top of K)
Cheery Lynn Designs Exotic Butterfly small
My Favorite Things Die-namics Banner Day
My Favorite Things Die-namics Mini Pennants
My Favorite Things Die-namics Prima Donna Petals (one of myfavourites!)

And just in case you were wondering where the actual letter is -it's hidden behind the dark purple heart, but it's for my daughter's eyes only!

Till next time, happy days.

Francine

Wetland - white on white

2012-01-26T18:52:00.001+11:00

Oh my, I have been neglecting my blog lately, haven't I? I haven'tposted in almost three months! It's not that I haven't done any scrapping,although I haven't done much, it's just that life, and a broken down computergot in the way! But, I have some time, and the computer is fixed so I havesomething to share with you all.

It's been a while since I did any challenges at SouthernGirls so I thought it was about time! The current challenge appealed to me -White on White. I quite like monochromatic challenges and I have recentlyreceived a ton of die cuts and embossed pieces of paper from a swap on my membersonly site - The Crop Room. I had a sketch from Becky Fleck of Page Maps that Iliked with lots of little squares and figured I could use lots of embossedpaper pieces from the swap as well as making a few more with some of theembossing folders I received for hosting the swap. I had fun going through mystash to find white embellishments too. Once I had found everything cut and/or embossedthe papers, the layout came together really quickly and I absolutely love theresult! I love how the colour photos really pop out of all the white. Want to see?

It's interesting that all these papers looked whiteindividually, but once they came together the difference in the whites isamazing. I love it! I will try and tell you what each square is from left toright starting in the top row:

embossed with Cuttlebug Swiss Dots, flowers were an op shop find (stud earrings) with sequin leaves
? - one of the embossed papers I received for the swap. It's on a shiny kind of plastic (thanks Jenny)
embossed with Cuttlebug folder with vines and little birds - can't find the name of it (thanks Janice), and pearls
photo

Second row:

left over scrap of flocked paper from an LSS challenge kit. Sticky backed pearl
photo
piece of photo paper wrapped with ribbon through a (Junkitz?) buckle, pearl
embossed with The Paper Studio script folder (thanks Nita), ribbon scrap, photo clip and sticky backed bling

Third row:

Cuttlebug vine and bird folder, pearls
magic mesh over paper with die cut from teh swap (thanks Nita) and bling brad
photo
? - embossed piece from the swap (thanks Kathy)

Fourth row:

photos

Fifth row:

as per second square in the top row

Sixth row:

left over scrap of glittery vellum from an LSS challenge kit, on top of a plain piece of white paper. Sticky backed bling
left over scrap of flocked paper from an LSS challenge kit as per second row, first square. Sticky backed pearls
embossed with Cuttlebug folder with swirls (thanks Janice)
photo

Butterflies from the swap (thanks Nita). I embossed thebottom one with the vines and bird folder, and the middle one with the Swissdots folder. I punched the top corners of the journalling tag with an EKSuccess corner punch. The 'Wetland' part of the title is a photo of the sign atthe wetland, and the little letters are my Carolees Creations. More stickybacked pearls and bling, all on top of a piece of Bazzill white cardstock, and the layout is done!

I'm really pleased with the final result. Is it uncool topin yourself (on Pinterest)? I just might!

Till next time - happy days!

Francine

Ribbons of love

2011-11-09T22:52:00.000+11:00

This photo is not the best, the colours aren't really right. It definitely looks much better in real life!

The latest challenge at Get Picky is a photo inspiration challenge. As well as being inspired by the photo you also had to include some fabric somewhere on the layout. I chose to use a couple pieces of lace. The photo made me think of flowers which in turn reminded me that I wanted to do a layout using a quote I found online somewhere about mothers. A while ago, after finding the quote, I asked my Dad for some photos of my mother and amongst others he sent me was one of my Mum with the flowers in an Auckland garden (Botanic Gardens?) during one of their trips to New Zealand. So, long story short, this challenge seemed like the ideal time to scrap that photo and use that quote!

I used a whole lot of papers and embellishments from my stash. I'm trying to be good and not buy too much new stuff and use up some of the old things. So, I really can't tell you where anything came from. The background is a piece of purple patterned paper (from which I cut out the centre - after all, you can't waste it under another piece of paper!). On top of that is a piece of white Bazzill cardstock and then another piece of a different purple patterned paper.

I once again used several of my cutting dies to make embellishments. The doily/medallion embellishment in the bottom left hand corner was made from a small daisy, layered on top of a cut and fold flower, layered on top of a decorative doily, and all held together with a white brad. I put together a stick pin with a small bag of beads, etc. from a Stampin Up friend, and attached a metal Mother tag that I received from a friend in the US for hosting a swap. I had a short piece of flower lace which I cut in half then stuck down along the left and bottom sides of the layout. I then stitched a small yellow bead to the centre of each lace flower.

I printed the quote: "Mother, the ribbons of your love are woven around my heart" onto a scrap piece of yellow gingham paper. The font is called Bleeding Cowboys. I found a few yellow hearts amongst my embellishments to go at the bottom of the quote, as well as a couple of purple ones which I stitched on top of the yellow lace.

The butterfly I cut out with my favourite die from Marianne Creatables (LR0115). I actually cut it out of the packaging for some tea samples I got in the mail. It's very glossy, cardstock weight paper with lovely swirls of yellow and pink. The spray of flowers is made up of small flower sequins which I attached with yellow and purple brads.

The whole thing didn't quite turn out as I had imagined, but I'm not disappointed with the result.

Till next time, happy days.

Francine

Magnolia

2011-10-31T23:17:00.000+11:00

I've been really busy with challenge entries this month and finished one last one just in time! I decided to enter the White with 1 challenge for the first time. This month's challenge was to use a white background with black and paint/mists. While I don't mind black and white, I prefer colour, so decided to use colour photos with the black and white background and I think it looks pretty good.

I started with a sheet of white Bazzill cardstock, and attached a couple of strips of gyprock tape. I then swiped some black (Kaisercraft) paint across the gyprock tape and then removed the tape, leaving a square pattern on the cardstock. I also inked the edges of the cardstock with soot black distress ink.

I used a Page Maps sketch as the basis for the layout, and stuck pretty close to it.

TLC rubons
Earring (?) Op Shop find

The paper for the bracket square, the die cuts, ribbon and rubons are all part of a TLC Runway kit from my TLC days. I created the bracket square in PSE, printed it on a piece of scrap paper to check the size, then copied it to the patterned paper and cut it out.

Joy Crafts daisy die flower

The papers for the circle on the left were left over from a monthly Wrapped in Paper challenge pack. I added some clear and black rhinestones and a button from my stash, as well as a mother of pearl earring (?) front that I picked up at the Op Shop. The flower in the top right hand corner I cut from a scrap of black cardstock with a Joy Crafts daisy die. the title was made from Kaisercraft mini black & white letters and I stitched a white edge around the bracket square with a bit of white floss.

Until next time, happy days!

Francine

Luge with a View

2011-10-29T14:20:00.002+11:00

I love Becky Fleck from Page Maps' sketches! They're always so well balanced and easy to follow. So, whenever her challenges are open to international scrapbookers, and sometimes even when they're not (since I have family in the States so can use their address) I try and make a layout. This time she's offering stuff that she's purged from her studio and there's some nice things there I wouldn't mind getting my hands on. But, even without the prize, the challenges always help me get some scrapping done! So, this is my latest creation for this challenge, from the sketch at left!

Since my page was all about the magnificent view at the top of Bob's Peak in Queenstown, New Zealand, where we went to the luge track, I couldn't help but replace the white space below with a large photo. I typed my journalling directly on to the photo before printing it out.

Limitless layers circle B used to cut the half circles

I kept the embellishments simple, using a metal ribbon slide, some fancy metal grommet buttons, a bit of ribbon and floss from my stash. I also used my Big Shot to cut the lotus scallop edged half circles. I'm loving using my Big Shot and the few dies that I have. More dies are definitely on my wish list!

The papers are from Stampin Up and I distressed the edges with some Versamark ink. The title is made from Tim Holtz grungeboard letters also inked with the brown Versamark ink, as well as a couple clear Dymo strips that I layered on top of some cardstock scraps that I also inked up first. (Here's a hint for anyone trying this at home - make sure the ink is completely dry and soaked in to the paper before you put the dymo tape on. Otherwise you just get ink on the sticky side of the Dymo tape and it keeps falling off - hmmm... wonder how I worked that out?!)

See the seed beads?

I finished the whole page off by pricking some holes, then using them to stitch some seed beads in a line above the pictures.

All in all, I love how this layout turned out! Maybe it will be good enough to win, maybe not - we'll see!

Till next time, happy days!

Francine

Bract vs Flower

2011-10-28T19:01:00.000+11:00

I completed this layout for the October Get Picky sketch challenge. It's their one year anniversary and they're having a blog hop as well! Of course I've left it to the last minute again as the challenge closes at midnight tonight, but I did manage to get it finished!

Kaleidoscope before cutting with the decorative doily die

Kaleidoscope before cutting with the lotus die

Other than the ribbons and flowers from my stash I made all of my own embellishments. I made a couple of kaleidoscopes from the photos and then die cut them with my Big Shot. I made a couple of other die cuts from paper from my stash and used some glimmer mist with a brass stencil that I had forgotten I had. I used some fired brick distress ink to colour the edges of the papers, and after cutting the letters for the title out of the pink polka dot paper that I used, I coloured them with my Sakura Stardust pens (Rose Star and Gold Star) so they would match the pink bracts picture and the yellow flower picture. That was pretty much it - finished!

journalling

I do have several more layouts to share, I just need to find some time to post them first.

Die-Namics decorative doily die cut

Till next time, happy days!

Francine

Fillable Frames Die #10

Decorative Label punch (EK Success/SU)

Limitless layers (circle B/lotus 3")

Cuttlebug Baby Face alphabet (for letters)

Cuttlebug Typewriter (for small arrows)

EZ Cut Small Corner#2 (Sullivans)misting through Anna Griffin Brass stencil (5800S)

Online Crop Weekend - Part 3 - Layouts

2011-10-12T13:31:00.000+11:00

There were four layout challenges in the online crop weekend that I participated in, and I finished three! That's pretty amazing for me since I'm such a slow layout maker. Even better was that I could make a layout for the latest Southern Girls challenge about men/boys at the same time! Here's the layout I came up with about my son (I don't usually blur my kids faces, but decided I should this time).

This layout was based on this sketch by Julie Bonner. In place of the journalling circle in the bottom left corner, I put a medallion made with my EZ Cut- Fold flower #5 die instead. This is a simple layout, but I think it turned out pretty well.

The second layout was another sketch challenge. I can't read the signature on the bottom so I'm not quite sure where it came from, sorry :-( I decided to make it about Spring in Canberra. These photos were taken a week or so ago. I so love all the flowering trees around Lake Burley Griffin! The layout is a bit busy I think, but it's starting to grow on me.

I used one of the flowers I made for the 'make your own flower' challenge (see right), as well as the Marianne Creatables butterfly die. (To those of you who regularly read my blog I can hear you saying "again?!") I also used my MFT Die-namics decorative doily die to make the journalling spot.

The chipboard flower is from my TLC stash, and the flower beads and glitter letters - who knows where and when I bought those! All the papers are scraps from other projects. I also used some glimmer mist over a tree mask from Tattered Angels on the background cardstock. That's the first time I used that mask which I got as part of a mini album kit (still unmade).

I love how the last layout turned out. The challenge was to make a no picture layout. I've wanted to record a particular comment from my daughter for some time and didn't know how, but this challenge was perfect! The story goes that my husband has been going interstate quite regularly (as in weekly!) and every time he returns my daughter asks "Did you bring me a present?" It's become a bit of a joke and I just had to record that! So, I had lots of fun finding scraps of paper and ribbons to make presents. I also created three, monthly calendars from an online site (calendarlabs.com) which I altered slightly in MSWord then printed out. I added places he went (well, I actually made them up since I can't keep track of all the dates!). Then I put them all together and this was the result. I love it! What do you think?

Well, that's it for me today. Till next time, happy days!

Francine

Online Crop Weekend - Part 2 - Cards

2011-10-11T18:22:00.001+11:00

Of the 25 challenges at my weekend online crop, the majority were card making challenges. I'm not really a card maker so these challenges are about the only time that I ever make any. I got eight cards done, but I'm only going to share four of them here. All of them were made with paper and cardstock scraps from my stash!

For the first card, the challenge was to include a circle, square and rectangle on the card. I cut all the items out of the same scrap of paper. The pink scalloped flower and central circle were cut using the Papertrey Ink Limitless Layers dies.

For the second card you had to include stitching. I used my new Sew Easy piercer with the lazy daisy head. I practiced first to work out how to put the holes in the right place! The sentiment is a TLC rub on. This is my favourite card that I made on the weekend.

For the third card, there was a sketch to follow. I used ribbons for the downward pieces. I used the Limitless Layers dies for the circles, and the Joy Crafts daisy die for the central flower. As I don't have a scallop border punch or circle punches the right size, I cut a pink retro flower, cut the petals off, then used them to make the scallops! I thought that was pretty ingenious, if I do say so myself.

The last card was also made from a sketch. I know I didn't follow the sketch too closely! The label was cut out using the Papertrey Ink Fillable Frames #10 die. This is my second favourite card of the weekend.

I still need to do a post about the layouts I made. Stay tuned!

Till next time, happy days!
Francine

Online crop weekend - part 1 - OTP/ATCs

2011-10-11T17:44:00.000+11:00

This past weekend I had the pleasure of participating in an online challenge weekend with my "Crop Room" scrapping buddies - mostly women in the US, but at least one friend from NZ as well (hi Lainie!). The crop was in celebration of World Card Making Day, even though it was a week late! There were 25 challenges in total - mostly cards as well as four layout challenges and four ATC/OTP challenges. here's what I made for the OTP/ATC challenges.

Challenge 1 - Create a flower from scratch.
I used this video tutorial to make a ric rac flower. While I liked the result it was smaller than I anticipated and so I added to it by punching two retro flowers, layering them together and adding the ric rac flower as the flower centre. I love how it turned out, and it was quite simple and fast to make too so I ended up making four flowers in the end :-)

Challenge 2 - Create a Halloween tag
The tag had to be at least 2.5" wide x 4" tall. Mine is 3.25" x 5.25". I used a TLC Halloween kit from my stash for the main embellishment on this tag. I was unlikely to ever use the kit since Halloween isn't a big thing here, and figured that even if I did want to use it, I could put this tag on the layout if I needed it!

Challenge 3 - Make an ATC with the theme "fly"The ATC could be of anything that flies except a bird. Since I liked this theme I made two ATC's, both about butterflies. Here they are!

The red one uses my new favourite Marianne Creatables butterfly die, Vintage Vogue stamp set from SU, and Cuttlebug typewriter alphabet die. I stamped the border stamp across the bottom, sprinkled on Stamp n Bond powder, heated it, then added the silver glitter. For the wings I put some double sided tape under the 'holes' I wanted to glitter then sprinkled the glitter on.

The pink ATC uses a SU stamp set called Great Friend. I found the quote online and printed it directly onto the cardstock.

Challenge 4 - Make an ATC with the theme "Mother"

For this ATC about Mother Nature, I printed a quote I found online directly on to the ATC, and stamped the green flourish leaves using the Vintage Vogue stamp set mentioned above. The medallion was made from one of my kaleidoscope cards and cut out with the EZ Cut - Fold Flower 5 die. The original kaleidoscope is shown below.

Grevillea card
www. MemoriesInKaleidoscope.com

I hope to do another post later about some of the other things I made on the weekend.

Till next time, happy days!

Francine

Birds of Prey (show)

2011-10-10T13:59:00.000+11:00

I realised that I hadn't shared my latest layout for the September Wrapped in Paper monthly challenge. I absolutely love it, partly because these photos turned out really awesome (to use today's parlance *grin*) and partly because I just like the layout of it. I used a sketch by Heidi Myers from the online publication Scrapbook News and Review (SNR). I submitted my layout to SNR and it was published (yay!) on Nov 16th, 2011. So, if you're looking at this post in the 30 days following 16.11.11 you won't be able to see my take on the sketch. Check back later!!

Sketch by Heidi Myers

I wasn't very keen on the papers in this kit (again!) but made the best of them. The orange dotty paper that I used as the background had garish purple, orange, pink and black words on the other side that I couldn't work out how to use, so I just used the patterned side. The three pieces of cardstock were easy to layer. The sun ray striped paper, oh my, I don't like at all, but in small doses it's ok. There were a couple of orange and green leaves which naturally made me think autumn, but I've done several of those layouts already and wanted to do another subject. In the end I just hid them in my embellishment cluster, using the (Collections, I think) chipboard buttons that were also in the kit. I inked the star with some orange ink to give it colour and tied them all on with some jute string.

I ended up punching some holes around the central photograph part. I goofed though so had to cover up the crooked line of holes. Can you guess how?! The two ribbons were also in the kit, so I used them for the "frame". the leaves were punched from the yellow cardstock with my Sizzlits Little Leaves die.

I finished off the layout with some (brown) Scenic Route and mini Kaisercraft black/white letter stickers. Since I had too much to say, I typed it out and printed it on some of the orange dotty paper that I cut out of the middle. I don't like to waste paper, so I often cut the middle out of paper if I put another large piece over the top of it :-)

The photos by the way, were taken by me (yes really!) at the Birds of Prey Show at the Alice Springs Desert Park. If you get to Alice Springs this park is not to be missed! They have recreated the different kinds of desert that you will find in Central Australia in this one location. They have lots of plants, animals and birds to see from each type of desert. It's a very interesting place, and the show was particularly good. I never thought I'd think that non colourful birds of prey would be interesting! I'm so pleased too that I caught the barn owl with wings starting to unfold, just about to take off.

Well, I've been very busy scrapping this past weekend so hope to be back later and share some more of my work.

Till next time, happy days!

Francine

Desert Blooms

2011-10-03T13:49:00.000+11:00

This layout was made for the latest PageMaps blog challenge using this sketch by Becky Fleck. I flipped it on it's horizontal axis.

The photos are of some ofthe flowers we saw while we were in the Red Centre (Northern Territory, Central Australia) inJuly. For a supposedly dry desert area, there were quite a lot of flowers! I’mso pleased that we saw both the Sturt’s Desert Rose (second from the left) and theSturt’s Desert Pea (main photo).

I used paper scraps that I have had in mystash for a very long time! I die cut most of the papers to make theembellishments.

Here’s what I used for the top leftembellishment cluster:

Papertrey Ink small Limitless layers die to make the doily frame, then layered it on top of

Papertrey Ink Fillable frames #10

Flower names printed onto paper and cut outwith EK Success label punch from Stampin Up!

Leaves made with Sizzlits Little leaves (redones) and SU 2 step bird punch (patterned leaves)

The title is made from Basic Grey (Fruitcake)stickers.

Bottom right embellishment cluster is madefrom:

Marianne Creatables LR0115 butterfly

EZ Cut Cut&Fold Flower#5 with a smallJoy Crafts daisy flower in the centre

More Sizzlits little leaves.

The red ‘flower’ was cut out from one of mykaleidoscope cards using the larger Papertrey Ink Limitless Layers die.

To finish it off I used a couple of pewtercoloured brads and I used the Sew Easy paper piercer to pierce the holes forthe stitched frame.

I love this layout, but then that’s nothingnew, I generally like all my layouts when they’re first finished!!

Till next time, happy days!

Francine

Always in our Heart

2011-10-02T00:06:00.000+10:00

Oh my goodness, where did September go?! While I completed a few things I haven't posted anything, but I really wanted to show you this one!

This layout is one that I made with the August Wrapped in Paper monthly challenge kit. There was little in the way of paper in it, only one full sheet of patterned paper (I can't remember the maker now), a half A4 sheet of gold and black striped paper and a half 12"x12" piece of Teresa Collins lace look paper. For the rest there were two flowers, a chipboard heart, two pieces of lace and a length of ribbon. The paper had a large carnival scene on one side so I used the reverse which was a deep maroon colour, although it is showing as more purple/red in this photo :(

I was inspired to make this layout by this one by Celeste Vermeend that I saw on the Scrap the Boys challenge site. I absolutely loved all the layering of papers and bits and pieces and just had to scraplift it. So thank you Celeste for the inspiration!

I ended up raiding my stash to find things to use. I found several papers and die cuts with gold to match the gold/black striped paper. I also embossed some black cardstock and then rubbed gold ink across it. I still had a few printed chipboard embellishments from an old TLC kit, and a frame that I picked up somewhere in my travels. I diecut some daisies from the papers as well as the large butterfly and doily. I stamped the "En Francais" (SU) background stamp on a label diecut and found a small printed vellum butterfly as well as a small metal key. I also added some buttons and scraps of a floral patterned paper and some gold corner stickers. The stark black and white Teresa Collins lace paper didn't go with the rest of the layout, so I used some fired brick distress ink to colour it.

butterfly die cut from Marianne Creatables

The photograph is of my grandmother a few years before she died. The colours in the photo were all wrong with the papers so I turned it into a sepia tone picture (after much ado - but that's another story!).

All in all I love the way this turned out, and the visitors to Wrapped in Paper obviously thought so too since I found out today that I won the September monthly challenge! Yippee!

Padlock and key - spellbinders die cut

I'll leave you with some more close-ups.

Till next time, happy days!
Francine

10 Years, 10 Houses

2011-09-05T23:37:00.013+10:00

Just a quick post to show you my latest challenge entry. This one is for Southern Girls Decade Challenge. When I was ten I remember my mother telling me that in my first ten years of life I had lived in 10 houses already! So – that’s my decade, and this is my layout – 10 years, 10 houses. I used cardstock and papers from the TLC Runway Retro collection. The ribbon, ribbon slide, number stickers and labels in the bottom right are all part of the same collection. The chipboard circles are also TLC, but from another kit – I can’t remember which one. I added a few brads, some Dymo tape and a house ad from the 1950’s that I downloaded from Tack-O-Rama. For the title, since I’d already used the 1 and 0 stickers, I cut around the little patterned bits that were left over after removing the sticker and used them instead (see, I never waste even the smallest bits!) I created a hidden journaling card behind the bottom picture and listed the addresses of all 10 houses. Thankfully I had the list from the 50th anniversary album I created for my parents a few years ago. My mother has a great memory and could tell me all the addresses!

I used sketch #62 by Susan Stringfellow from Sketch Savvy (although I flipped the photos horizontally).

Till next time, happy days!

Francine

Father/Dad

2011-08-28T00:12:00.012+10:00

(Poor picture quality - sorry! Despite it being a sunny day I still got glare, and I took several photos before I gave my perfectionism away!)

I decided fairly last minute that I would enter the latest Get Picky sketch challenge. With Father’s Day coming up soon I decided it would be good to make a layout about Gary and chose these two photos of him and the children I thought were nice. As I’ve always loved the saying “Any man can be a father, but it takes someone special to be a Dad” I decided (unlike me) not to do any journaling and leave it with the quote. I did write the dates of the photos on the back of the page though *wink*.

The challenge was to use this sketch.

For the layout I used lots of things from my stash. I’m mostly trying to do that at the moment, but because I can’t help myself when I see nice things, I still do have some new things too. Here’s what I used:

· Cardstock: My Mind’s Eye (Penny Lane) (new from the Craft Show)
· Cream patterned paper: TLC (stash). I cut the word Dad from this paper too using Cuttlebug Curls and Swirls alphabet die.
· Brown ribbon and brown/white flowered paper (American Crafts) – left over from an LSS challenge. I cut the word SPECIAL, the small hearts, the arrow and the asterisk out of this paper with my Cuttlebug Typewriter alphabet die, and the two snowflakes with my (new from the Craft Show) Marianne Creatables die (LR0125).
· Brown chipboard tag and string – clothing label
· Brown stamped love heart – leftover from a Kaszazz workshop I hosted some time ago (stash)
· Dad acrylic word – Go West word chime coloured with pinecone Versamark ink (stash)
· Large round brads – from an Apron Strings kit (stash)
· Small metal button – Smart Kraft (new)
· Lace – unknown (stash)
· Butterfly – Porta Craft (stash)
· Brown jute string – left over from a bit Kylie gave me for this layout.
· Chipboard ribbon slide, pink heart, flourish (if that’s the right word for it!), and cream spotted ribbon – all TLC (stash)
· Small envelope – K&Company (stash)
· Metal letters (father) – unknown (stash)
· Dymo

Phew! That was a lot of stuff. I’ve been seeing lots of layouts on the net where people have clustered a number of small embellishments and wanted to try it, so this is my first attempt. Turned out pretty good I think. I want to try it again on my next layout. We’ll see how that goes again.

One last note about the Marianne Creatables snowflake die. I have been buying a few different cutting dies lately and absolutely love the Papertrey Ink and My Favorite Things (MFT) dies that I have. They cut very well and the die cut just falls right out. It is rare that paper gets caught in the die and if it does they have tiny holes that you can poke them out with a paper piercer. The two Marianne Creatable dies that I got at the Craft Show on the other hand, make the most beautiful die cuts (my other one is a butterfly - LR0115) but the paper sticks in the die. It takes about three times as long to remove the paper and all the little bits from the die as it does to actually cut it! It’s driving me crazy. So today I thought, what if I put a piece of wax paper between the die and the paper I’m cutting out. Well, that worked like a charm and the die cut just fell out. I have yet to try it on the butterfly die which is the worst one for keeping bits of paper in it after cutting, but I suspect it will work well too. So I guess I need to keep up my supply of wax paper now! Seeing as I have a nearly full roll of it from about 1990 though, I don’t think that will be a problem!!

Till next time, happy days!

Francine

Soccer Fun

2011-08-17T22:12:00.008+10:00

Here is my latest layout for the Scrap the Boys August Challenge. The challenge was to make a layout inspired by the picture at right.

I was inspired by the red and blue stripes, and the large circle. While I was going to use striped paper, it turned out that I didn’t have any, but I found these papers in my stash instead. They’re from an old TLC Runway Playhouse Collection kit. The circle, blue ribbon and the number stickers are too. I also found the star diecut in my stash. From memory it is one of the first scrapbooking set of diecuts I ever purchased. I don’t know who made them though as the packaging is long since gone. I added the dots around the edge with my Sakura stardust pen. The small letter stickers are cherry red mini alpha stickers by Kaisercraft.

While this is a simple layout, loosely based on sketch number 1 by Donna Coughlin that I found on Love of Sketches, I love how it turned out. I think that the simplicity goes well with the action shots and team photo.

Well that’s it for now. Till next time, happy days.

Francine

A Touch of Frost

2011-08-07T16:58:00.017+10:00

I love how this layout turned out! I made it for the Southern Girls Challenge. This time it was a photo inspiration challenge with this photo of a tree on a frosty morning. Well, at the end of July we were having lots of frosty mornings, and one morning I ventured out to take a photo of the camellias which were covered in frost. So, I figured this was a good subject for the layout. The colours are nothing like the inspiration photo, but the idea was still there!
As anyone who has been reading my blog regularly will know, I love sketches. Well, I recently discovered a new site and it’s great! It’s called Sketch Support. Not only do they have sketches but you can download them for printing and they also include measurement and placement information as well as ideas for variations on the sketch. Go check it out! So, I was absolutely smitten by their last sketch and used this as the base for this layout.

I used a lot of things from my stash – leftover scraps of papers, Heidi Swapp ‘bordeaux’ ghost alphabet, Zva Creative bling (cutting off the flowers at the ends of the swirls), white Porta Craft pearls, white brads, an (originally black) CM snowflake die cut, and white sparkly string/thread.

After cutting the background papers, I covered one piece of pink cardstock with the white mulberry paper, and the other piece I embossed with the Cuttlebug ‘distressed snow’ folder. I then inked the raised areas with white Versamark ink and heat embossed it with some CM clear embossing powder mixed with dazzling diamonds.

After sticking the papers and photos down I remembered that I had some ‘pink taffy’ Glimmer Mist from a kit I’d bought and not yet made up and decided to mist the white (Bazzill) cardstock with that. I put down the ghost letters first as well as some punched snowflakes (using CM snowflake punch and Sullivan’s starburst punch) in the top corner and cut out some scrap paper to just cover the photos. I like how it turned out, even though I really should have misted before I attached the photos and paper!

I painted the black die cut with gesso and put some of the embossing powder/glitter mixture on before it dried to add some sparkle. I attached the ghost letters with the sparkly string/thread and cut the rest of the title out of the same paper as the middle rectangle with Cuttlebug ‘Baby Face’ dies (now discontinued), only I painted them with ‘moonlight’ Smooch. As I don’t like to waste anything, I embossed the centre of the acetate O with the distressed snow folder and cut out the resulting snowflake. It's right there under the R and the O - see?! (Aside: I have lots of those chipboard centre pieces from A’s, D’s, O’s, P’s, etc hanging around in my stash waiting to use on something one day, so I was pleased I came up with this idea for the acetate!)

After putting it all together I realised that I had nowhere left to journal so used more of the same papers to cut out the three pieces on the bottom left using my Papertrey Ink dies (fillable frames #10 and Limitless Layers: 1 3/4" Circle Collection). I covered one with the same white mulberry paper, dry and heat embossed the other, and wrote the journaling on the third piece.

Altogether I really like how this turned out, and I hope you do too.

Till next time, happy days!

Francine

Jazz Hands

2011-07-31T19:56:00.010+10:00

he can play piano…he has jazz hands

I recently came across a new Australian challenge site: Scrap the Boys. The idea of needing to scrap a layout about boys only appealed to me and I decided to enter. This month’s challenge was to include some tape on the layout, and to include the word PLAY in the title, and naturally it had to be about a male.

Well, at some stage I bought some decorative tape that has piano keys on it from a $2 shop. Since you ‘play’ a piano, it seemed that I had to do a layout about piano playing. My Dad is a jazz piano player and I had some photos of him from a few years ago, so that became my subject. I loosely followed this layout from Let’s Scrap.

The papers are from my TLC selling days, from the Runway Salt & Pepper kit. The title is Dymo tape and Maya Road ‘David’ chipboard that I coloured with my Sakura star pens. I turned three white brads into music notes, and also added three little mirror tiles, all from my stash. The most fun part of the layout IMHO is the little hands (from some baby embellishments in my stash) that I put on top of some more of the piano keys tape.

Since I ran out of space for the journaling, I included it on a tag behind the right hand picture.

Till next time, happy days!

Francine

Painted Faces

2011-06-27T22:27:00.005+10:00

I decided to play with some digital brushes this afternoon and created a layout for the Scrapbooking Competition challenge blog. The blog owner Ingeborg designed the sketch to use. I looked through my old photos and picked this one of Kyaa and her cousin Matthew who was visiting us part way through a round the world trip with his family at the time. They look pretty cute don't they?!

I created four different sized circles and layered them on top of each other. I used a clipping mask to attach the photo to the smaller circle, then picked colours from the photo to fill the remaining circles. Then I started playing with brushes! Altogether I used brushes from butterfly_by_ShadyMedusa-stock, Porcelain brushes by Miko, KPertiet_FloralEdger (not sure where I picked that one up from?) and Circle Flourish Brush from Little Dreamer Designs. The fonts I used were One Fell Swoop (one of my favourite script fonts!) and Papyrus (aside - while looking for the link for the Papyrus font I came across several links about the overuse of the papyrus font. Lucky I didn't know about that before I finished my layout!!).

Till next time, happy days!

Francine

Rock Art (at Fantail Falls)

2011-06-27T15:57:00.005+10:00

I finished this layout quite a few days ago but I seem to run out of time when it comes to posting these days. I'm entering this layout in the Southern Girls Challenge, anything goes. Unsurprisingly there are 100's, literally, of entries this fortnight! So, maybe mine will take it up to 400...

I was originally going to make this layout for this challenge over at Apron Strings (using Blue and white), but once I started it wasn't turning out any good so I canned that idea and sat on it for a few days. And,guess what - shock, horror, I didn't use a sketch!!! That's the first time in ages. Still, I think it looks like I used a sketch - probably because I've used so many now. Despite it not turning out how I first anticipated, I love how it turned out. The muted green of the Kaisercraft papers I think is just wonderful. I picked up the rub on branches at the Craft Show last year for $1 I think, and I love how they look. I also had these rock alphabet stickers that I picked up somewhere some years ago that turned out perfectly for this layout. Too bad there was only one of most letters and I needed 2 Rs but there was only one of those, so had to change to plan B... So, what do you think?

The pictures by the way were taken at Fantail Falls in Mt Aspiring National Park on New Zealand's south island during our Holiday there in January. We had seen a few of these rock piles around the place, but when we turned the corner off the path from the parking lot we were greeted by hundreds of them. Naturally Kyaa had to make one too. She said it was pretty hard to make them balance, but she managed a little pile in the end!

Well, till next time, happy days!

Francine

Funny Face

2011-06-26T22:50:00.012+10:00

This is my entry for the Get Picky #9 sketch challenge. I rotated the sketch 180 degrees and used photographs of some of Logan's funny faces.

The papers are from Pink Paislee (Amber Road Collection), Bazzill cardstock, and rubons from my TLC stash (quik Words - smile). The title is Maya Road raw chipboard alphas, coloured with Charcoal Versamark ink. Here are some closeups of the layout.

Till next time, happy days.
Francine

Scrappassion International Challenge Blog

2011-06-03T12:51:00.016+10:00

I recently won a spot as guest DT on the Scrappassion international challenge blog for this month. Unfortunately however, this month is to be the last month that the challenges will be running. Because of the small number of participants lately, and other personal challenges faced by the blog owner at the moment, the decision was made to wind up the blog on June 30th 2011. But, before then there's still time to get your entry in for this month's challenge. Go here to read the full rules of the challenge.

The challenge is to make a layout inspired by this advertisement. You can choose any part of the ad - the layout, the colours, the angels, the butterflies, the words, the bottle, the swirls, etc. What part will you chose?

For my layout, I chose to focus on the fact that there were lots of rectangles, and I liked the 'explosion' of swirls etc in some of the pictures. The result is a layout about my Goddaughters' (yes they are identical twins) 21st birthday party with lots of rectangles (the photos) and an explosion of stuff in the middle around the cut out photograph of the balloons.

For the explosion part I cut out several flourishes with my Big Shot. I also added 'Happy Birthday' and '21' table sprinkles, some tiny mirror tiles, some beaded wire, and some curling ribbon. Around the large 21 chipboard numbers I attached some purple heart beads. At the top I cut a corner bling flourish in half and put half of it on either side of the photo. Everything I used on this layout is from my stash.

I hope you all have a go at this challenge too! I'd love to see what you make of the inspiration.

I also entered last month's challenge, but the blog owner didn't get a chance to upload it, so here it is.

The challenge was to create a layout using at least one handmade embellishment based on the tutorial given here to make felt flowers. The flowers were easy to make and turned out very nicely. Instead of using a button for the flower centre though, I used a bead.

The layout is based on a PageMaps sketch. For those spots where I didn't put a felt flower I used swirls grungeboard circles. I coloured the debossed parts of the circles using my Sakura stardust pens, then swiped ink across the raised portions of the circles. The title (mixed minis) and tall flowers are also grungeboard coloured in with my Sakura pens. The papers are TLC from my stash and the black tile letters in the title are from Kaisercraft. A couple of dragonfly brads and some ribbon from my stash, and the layout was finished.

The photograph is a black (or blue, depending on your point of view) flower wasp. We had lots of them buzzing around the ivy on our fence this year. Their wings are gorgeously iridescent.

Even though this challenge is finished, have a go at making some of these flowers - they're great!

Until next time, happy days!

Francine

Cowgirl

2011-06-03T11:21:00.007+10:00

Well folks, it's been a long time since I put up a new post, but that's not because I have nothing to share, it's just because I have been so busy. So I'm going to spend some time writing some posts, and this first one is especially for Kylie. (I would put one of those cute little moving smiley icons waving at you here if I knew how!) I want to say thanks Kylie for having me over to your place last weekend and letting me use some of your masses of goodies! The layout I finished when I got home (because I stupidly forgot to bring the photo with me!!) was this one. I really like it despite its simplicity.

The layout is based on a sketch from Ideas for Scrapbookers called Postage Stamp. While it's really a Christmas sketch, you can see that that's not the purpose for which I used it, I changed the inverted scallop border to a different border (using Kylie's Loops border punch), and didn't put on all the embellishments on either.

Thanks to Kylie I was able to cut out the doilies with a Dienamics die. She also provided the stamp for the middle of the doily (Papertrey Ink), and the bit of brown fibre under the title. The rest of the stuff was mine from my stash. The patterned papers are quite old ones from TLC. I also used some cardstock, flowers, brads, and stick on pearls, none of which I'm sure who by. The title was made using a new alphabet die set that I just bought. I then coloured it with my clear Sakura stardust pen (you know the ones I always rave about) to add some sparkle.

As far the photo is concerned, it is of Kyaa when she attended a friend's birthday party and had to come dressed up as a cowboy. The background (believe me!) was very distracting so I cut just her out of the picture and threw the rest away. I think that it looks quite effective.

Until next time (maybe even today), happy days!

Francine

Our 2 Little Stars

2011-04-30T10:36:00.010+10:00

Earlier this month I made this digital layout using a sketch by Pam Callaghan from Ideas for Scrapbookers. I love this sketch so decided to make a paper version of the sketch as well, and use the Wrapped in Paper monthly challenge kit to do it. Since there was a chipboard robot in the kit that needed to be used, I went through some old photos from 1999 of the kids as toddlers, hoping to find some photos of Logan making something. Well, I found these photos of the kids that I’d taken at Floriade instead, so decided to go with the star theme that was both in the robot and the diecut paper. I love how this layout turned out and I think it’s one of my favourites ever. Here it is!

This is the kit I started with: white and grey Bazzill cardstock, half sheet of diecut paper, half a sheet of patterned paper and an A4 sheet of blue checked paper as well as two pieces of ribbon, some red Kaisercraft mini letter stickers and the chipboard robot. I thought that the blue checked paper clashed terribly with the grey cardstock so had to put them as far apart as possible! From my stash I also dug out some orange Basic Grey (I think!) paper scraps, a TLC tiny tag, some mini Kaisercraft beige coloured letter stickers and (shock, horror!) some red star eyelets that have been in my stash forever!

Here’s another look at the sketch I was using. I rotated it 90^o this time.

I found putting this layout together was a bit fiddly, probably mostly because I’m a perfectionist and the circles had to be just so. I cut out the circular photos, circles from the checked paper and rectangles of patterned paper first. Then I laid them out in order and stuck them onto my craft mat with removable tape. I then cut the circular bits out where the circular paper and photos joined the other patterned paper. Then I lifted them all off my craft mat and attached them to the cardstock. I’m thinking there must be an easier way to do this, but I’m not quite sure how. I added the other embellishments and used the 2 from the diecut paper as part of my title.

The end result I think is stunning. Hopefully everyone who votes at Wrapped in Paper will think so too!

Till next time, happy days!

Francine

Superb Fairy Wren

2011-04-28T22:14:00.012+10:00

My latest layout is one I made for the Get Picky Sketch Challenge #7. I combined it with the Southern Girls Green & Blue challenge and came up with this layout about the cute little Superb Fairy Wrens that have been visiting us lately. They’re terribly hard to photograph as they’re so quick and it seems that as soon as I open the back door with my camera, they’re off. Finally one day though I was lucky enough to get a few shots. The male, the beautiful blue one, isn’t often with the group of females, but on this occasion he was. I love these little birds and the lovely twittering that heralds their arrival in our yard.

So much for the birds, here is my layout. I made it completely from scraps and bits from my stash. The cardstock and ribbon are both from TLC, the patterned paper is by Sandylion, the green felt flowers are from Stampin Up!, the title letters are by Portacraft and the little blue flowers, blue metallic thread and green heart buttons have been in my stash for some time.

Logan thought this layout was too plain, but I think its simplicity suits the subject well. What do you think?

Till next time, happy days!

Francine

Another top 3 pick!

2011-04-28T22:10:00.003+10:00

Yay, I was chosen as a top three pick for the last Southern Girls (sketch) challenge with my Our Team layout. I'm feeling proud!

Our Team

2011-04-18T18:06:00.008+10:00

Here are some more photos from our Otago Central Rail Trail tour (on New Zealand’s south island) in January. The main picture is of the tour group we were with. They were lots of fun. There was another family from Brisbane, Australia, another woman from Brisbane and one from Melbourne. As well, there were three couples from Wellington, NZ, a woman from the UK, and the two guides who were both from Christchurch. At the time I found the going really tough, but in hindsight it was a great trip, due mostly to the fantastic people on our tour. This photo was taken at the bottom of Baldwin Street in Dunedin, purported to be the steepest street in the world. I certainly only ventured part way up – I had to stay behind to set up the tripod for the shot! The two photos at the bottom were taken on the trail. The one on the left was our first day on the trail and is near Chatto Creek where we stopped for morning tea. The one on the right was taken on our last day on the trail and is nearing the end near Middlemarch. I was really struggling against the wind at the time, so stopping to take a photo was a welcome relief. It helped that the scenery was lovely too.

The layout is for the latest Southern Girls challenge, a sketch by Trace Jackson. Interestingly there are not many entries this fortnight. Since the entrants are overwhelmingly card makers, I guess they’re not much in to using sketches. Me on the other hand, that’s my favourite thing! I rotated the sketch 180^o, and since it is relatively simple so is my layout, but I like how it turned. I think the emphasis is on the photos which is generally what I strive to do with my scrapbooking.

Everything I used on this layout comes from an old TLC Runway kit called Urban Threads. Much of it has skulls on it which was popular at the time, but I carefully covered all those up! In order to record all our tour mates’ names, I made a pull tag from some of the diecuts in the kit, attached it to a piece of cardstock and slipped it behind the main photo. That way I didn’t need to take up room on the actual layout, because I’m not really sure where I would have put it anyway. What do you think?

Till next time, happy days!

Francine

Apron Strings last birthday challenge

2011-04-04T08:24:00.005+10:00

This layout was inspired by the Apron Strings last birthday Challenge. The challenge was to create a layout inspired by the subway art pictured at right. I've seen these popping up more and more on blogs and like the look. So, I decided I would create my own version of this subway art and use it on my layout. I picked some photos from our Otago Central Rail Trail tour we completed in January. This was a fantastic adventure where we biked 154km over a period of 5 days along what was once a railway through Central Otago province on New Zealand's south island. You can read more about it here.

I picked this sketch by Susan Stringfellow of Sketch Savvy and set to work. Instead of a photo in the bottom right corner of the layout though, I made a CD pocket. I've made a movie of all the photos that I took on the tour and will transfer it to CD. Once I've done that, I'll keep it in this pocket.

I used papers from Stampin Up! as well as some of the Scrapmatts chipboard that I won on the recent Scrapmatts blog hop. (Thanks Sophie!) I used twigs 02 (CB5056) and floral designs 03 (CB5057) that I coloured with my Sakura star pens (the chipboard is so easy to colour with them). The letter brads for my titles were purchased from a $2 shop and were in my stash as were the brown and green flowers. The brown felt flowers are from SU! and the cream coloured flowers are from Hero Arts.

The small cream and black alphabet stickers are from Kaisercraft and the others are from Adornit. Brads are by Jasart. I also put a few skeleton leaves under the floral designs chipboard in the top left corner and on the CD pocket. I bought those when we were in Thailand.

I made the subway art inside a text box in Word. The fonts I used were:

touring: Dymo

pedal: Trubble; ride: Bleeding cowboys

bicycle: Birmingham

coast: Varsity Regular

wheels: LD Chubby

whirl: One Fell Swoop (I love this script font!); turn: Trubble

velocipede: Stripes Caps

So, what do you think? I love how this layout turned out and am very happy with it. I hope you like it too.

Till next time, happy days!

Francine

Pelicans

2011-04-01T13:50:00.005+11:00

Well, from spiders to pelicans...

I checked out one of my favourite blogs this morning, Ideas for Scrapbookers and came across this cool layout template. I immediately fell in love with it and had to make a layout!

This is the result.

I haven't made a digital layout for a while, and with the help of the layered template it came together very quickly! I have to admit that as I haven't worked out where I can get 12x12 prints made economically that I haven't printed any of my digital layouts and they just live on my computer at the moment. So, I'm also loathe to pay for any digital supplies. Hence I tend to use the bucket tool and pick colours from my photos. This time though I did use some freebies that I had downloaded . I haven't worked out how to record them well, so I can only tell you that the patterned papers around the photos are by Jessica Sprague from a collection called LoveYa. The background paper by Amy C Bleser is called "acbleser-rds-addon-pp1".

I remembered to write down the fonts this time! They are: for the title - Do you Like Stripes? and for the journalling - Bitstream Vera Sans.

Till next time, happy days!

Francine

Spiders!

2011-03-29T00:32:00.005+11:00

After years of drought we've had a very wet year this year, and it has brought green grass (yay!), but also lots of insects and consequently spiders too. I watched a little spider build it's web the other day and went and grabbed my camera to take some shots. Then I went around and found others to photograph too. My kids will tell you that I have an unhealthy obsession of photographing insects, but I love the macro photography! So, I had all these cool photos and what to do with them? Well use them in a layout of course.

The Apron Strings challenge to use a box or block on your layout seemed as good a challenge as any, so I went to the Scrapbooks Etc site and used one of their collage templates to make the block of photos. I used one of their templates for this layout too. It's a quick way of putting a layout together, and very effective too I think.

I used Papers from the Pink Paislee 365 degrees collection, bought from Apron Strings. The white flocked designs are from a leftover strip of paper from my last LSS monthly challenge kit and the design fit very well with the papers. The letters are Scenic Route, also bought from Apron Strings. The finishing touch though is the spider web that I made. I just used some sewing thread, made the lines going out, then would the thread around those strings. I love how it turned out!!!

I'm also entering this layout in the Southern Girls "add an animal" challenge. I think spiders apply, don't you? Might stir them up a bit, amongst all the cute rabbits and bears, LOL!

Till next time, happy days!

Francine

Mouth Jewellery

2011-03-29T00:08:00.005+11:00

Ok, so I know the topic of this layout is weird, but I've wanted to do this for some time, and the Apron Strings challenge number 16 gave me the impetus to make it. The challenge was to make a layout using round items, with at least two larger than three inches. I looked through all my collected sketches, and on sketch sites online and couldn't find one that I liked that incorporated enough, or large enough circles. So, I actually made this one up myself - first time in ages!

So without further ado - here's the layout:

So, yes, those are closeups of my teeth! I had a special apparatus to move my lower jaw (to correct it's position and help with my headaches - which it did!) which in turn changed my bite, necessitating me to wear braces. I recently had them removed and am now wearing a (clear!) retainer. But I digress. Every six weeks I had to have the elastics holding the wire in place changed. The assistant convinced me the first time I had them changed to go for coloured elastics (it was coming up to Christmas and she suggested red and green), so every time after that I had a different colour. When my neighbour saw them she said something I didn't forget - that it looked like 'mouth jewellery', and so the idea of this layout was then born in my head, and here it is finally!

Everything on this layout comes from my stash, all left over bits and pieces. When I first finished it, I didn't like it too much as it was missing something. I decided to pierce holes around the outside of the papers and pictures, then added stitching with beads. That took a while - but it suddenly lifted the layout and finished it somehow. For the title I used flocked letters and to the word 'mouth' I stitched seed beads in between each letter and put a wire through it to replicate the braces. I think it looks pretty cool! What do you think?

Till next time, happy days!

Francine

How Time Flies!

2011-03-28T23:17:00.014+11:00

My, how time flies! When I saw this sketch from Ingeborg on her scrapbooking competitions blog, it reminded me that I've been wanting to make a layout showing how my kids have grown over the years. So I took photos on their first day of school every two years. When you see them next to each other like this it really makes you realise how time flies!

For the layout I took the sketch and flipped it for the right hand side in order to make it into a double page layout. I find it really hard to make a layout of one child and not the other, certainly for layouts like this, so I had to make it into a double pager. Since I used four different patterned papers, this layout also satisfied the requirements of the Apron Strings birthday challenge number 15 as well. Three of the papers are from the Basic Grey Lemonade collection, and the striped one is from Wild Asparagus. I also added some tags from K&Co., rub ons from TLC, and metal embellishments that I bought at the Dollar Store when we were living in Canada four (!) years ago. I finished it off with some kitchen twine and dark green floss.

This layout is simple,

but I really like it, and I can't get over how the kids have changed so much. as I said in the journalling - gone are those adorable little children and in their place are two confident young people! I'm proud of them.

Till next time, happy days!

Francine

Franz Josef Glacier

2011-03-20T23:10:00.015+11:00

I made this layout for a CRII challenge to use this sketch from Page Maps. The snowflakes made me think of the wonderful photos I had from our full day tour of Franz Josef Glacier in New Zealand this past January. I love how it turned out! It's a great reminder of a great day!

Everything I used was from my stash, Some things I've had longer than others. I used papers from TLC. I picked the colours from the the blue and red jackets. The title used some Pressed Petals letters that I had left over from a project many years ago. Only problem was I didn't have a "g", so I used a glittery red one from my stash instead. Hopefully it looks like I meant to do that, LOL, but I guess now I've told you the real story! The (Franz Josef) sub title was made with tiny letter stickers from Kaisercraft.

The clear acrylic ribbon slide over the snowflake punch on the bottom right is also from TLC and another thing from my TLC days that I had in my stash. I don't know who made the ribbons, the metal snowflake or the white brads. I've had them all for a long time too. The snowflake in the left hand corner of the right hand page, is a diecut from CM. It was grey, so I coloured it with my white gel pen which didn't work very well. Then I coloured over that with some moonlight coloured Smooch. It made it look kind of silver. I tried to cover it with white micro beads, but that really didn't work, so in the end I coloured it some more with my Sakura silver star gel pen. I was happy(ish) with it at last!

Finally, the snow flakes I punched from white Bazzill cardstock. It's

a CM punch that I borrowed from my neighbour. I coloured them in a little with my clear Sakura star gel pen, then added these small flower sequins that I had bought at a $2 shop, and sewed them onto the layout with a small white seed bead. I love the look, besides the fact that it helps to secure the ribbon to the layout.

So, what do you think? I'd love you to leave me some comments!

Till next time, happy days!

Francine

Apron Strings Birthday Party Day #11

2011-03-20T22:43:00.007+11:00

The Apron String Birthday Party Challenge #11 was to make a layout with at least 6 photos on it. My first instinct was to create a double page layout, but then I decided to really challenge myself and make a single page layout instead. I remembered that on the (Better Homes and Gardens) Scrapbooks Etc. site that they have collage templates. I found one that I liked and put my photos in. I did change the template slightly, but it was a great starting point! Thanks Lori for reminding me (indirectly at least!) about these great templates. So here's what I came up with.

I used an old TLC Spotlight (birthday) kit that I had in my stash. (In fact I have lots of TLC kits in my stash and I really should get in and use them up!) Because the photos were already set out in the collage, most of the work was already done and the layout itself came together really quickly. I just added a bit more sparkle by doodling on some of the chipboard pieces with my Sakura star gel pens. You can see it a bit in these detail pictures.

I did blur out the boys in the pictures since I'm not sure if their parents would approve.

Till next time, happy days!

Francine

Bows

2011-03-14T16:58:00.004+11:00

I posted just the photo of this layout yesterday so that I could link it to a challenge at Apron Strings (and still managed to miss the link - only by a few minutes though!). The challenge was to put something on your layout on an angle. In my case it was the photos and the butterflies. Anyway, I thought I should come back and add some more pictures and tell you the story of this layout.

It was made with my monthly Wrapped in Paper challenge kit. Unlike last month, I really liked this kit, but am a bit sad about the way it turned out in the end. It looked much better in my head, LOL! I once again forgot to take a picture of the kit before I cut it up, so I'll try to tell you about it. It had two pieces of cardstock, the yellowy cream that I used for the background, and a piece of beige. There were two pieces of patterned paper by Webster's pages (Feather Fashion and Stardom), as well as two lengths of cream ribbon (which I layered on top of each other in the centre of the layout), the large chipboard flower and two chipboard flourishes, the purple and green flowers, a length of string and the white flocked design paper strip.

I found this great sketch (by Michelle Fowler for Handmade by Suzanne) while blog hopping and instantly fell in love with it. Since my photos were landscape though, I flipped the sketch 90degrees to the left. Initially I tried to colour the chipboard with ink, but it just didn't turn out right, so I ended up colouring it with twinkling H2Os. They're much brighter than I would have liked, but at least the colours match!

I cut a lot of the flowers out of the papers, and had the most difficulty in using the piece of string. In the end I put double sided tape under the centre of the chipboard flower and wound the string inside the space. I did this once before on an ATC that I made, and I like how this looks. I punched the butterflies from the patterned papers with my Martha Stewart (stamp and) punch. For the title I added some silver glittered letters from my stash, and pierced some holes in the corners to finish it off. I guess the layout is ok - but certainly not one of my favourites. I do really like the photos though! They're pictures of my dad and his older sister when they were children in the 1930s. I guess that bows were in then for little girls since the pictures span a period of five or so years and my aunt has bows in her hair for all of them! I think it's quite cute.
Well, till next time, happy days!

Francine

Milford Sound

2011-03-14T16:38:00.011+11:00

I quickly posted these photos yesterday before the challenge link expired and just made it! Here now though is the story behind them.

I created the left hand side of this layout for the Apron Strings birthday challenge #5 - use at least 10 buttons, brads or eyelets. Well I used several buttons, although not 10. However, I did use 12 brads around the central button.

The sketch I used is this one. I really liked how it used a large photograph. I like this photo of Mitre Peak that I took on holiday in New Zealand in January. I put the title and journalling directly onto the photo in PSE, then printed it out. I added some stamping, buttons and ribbons, and pierced a line of holes around the left, top and right hand side of the photo, and the layout was done!

The right hand side of the layout was based on the above sketch. I used four portrait photos though instead of one single photo. the page was made for Apron Strings challenge #7 - use at least three ribbons. I used two of the same ribbons that I used on the left side page, added a third ribbon, some buttons, pierced some holes around the central piece of patterned paper, and added the sub title with sticker letters (from Carolee's Creations?)

The patterned paper used on both layouts is from Stampin Up!

I'm not sure if I've ever pierced holes on a layout before, and this past weekend I used this technique on three layouts, but I think it is quite effective! It's very simple, but adds a nice touch. All in all, this double page layout is quite understated, but I think it turned out quite well, and really has the emphasis on the photos.

Till next time, happy days!

Francine

Larnach Castle

2011-03-06T22:42:00.009+11:00

I finished another layout for an Apron Strings challenge. The challenge was to use this Page Maps sketch. I love Becky Fleck's Page Maps sketches, so had to enter. The layout I came up with is of our trip to Larnach Castle in Dunedin, New Zealand in January 2011.

The papers I used were from 7 Gypsies - Flora and Mesofauna. For the central circle I used some Swiss dot Bazzill cardstock, and plain Bazzill cardstock for the base. I traced a scalloped circle piece of patterned paper onto the cream Swiss dot cardstock and then cut it out. I swiped some brown ink across the paper, and also pierced a border of holes along the edge of the scallops. It is very simple, although a bit time consuming (!), but effective.

The flourishes are from Dusty Attic. I painted them with twinkling H2Os for a bit of colour and some sparkle. I added a bit of ribbon, bought by the metre at Wrapped in Paper, and a few brads for embellishment.

The resulting layout is simple, but I think it turned out well.

That's it for now. I need to find a bit more time to make my next project - so until then, happy days!

Francine

Chalice

2011-03-06T17:22:00.015+11:00

Well, I'm combining challenges again!

I used a sketch from CRII March Challenge
I'm entering the monochromatic challenge from the Scrappassion Challenge blog International
as well as the Apron Strings Happy (belated) Birthday challenge to use ribbon (in a way you haven't done before).

This layout came together relatively quickly actually. I started off by turning the sketch on it's side to cater for the portrait oriented photographs. I used a Stampin Up! patterned paper kit,

flowers from my stash as well as a few punched ones, some skeleton leaves that we bought when we were in Vietnam, and ribbon that I bought by the metre at Wrapped in Paper.

I picked two organza ribbons and a very narrow one, so braided them together. I think it looks great! The hardest thing was starting the braiding. I finished it off with the rickrack and plaid ribbons along the top and bottom edges of the page.

The photos are of a lovely sculpture called the Chalice, and made by the New Zealand artist, Neil Dawson. Around the bottom there are carvings of the title, and pictures of the NZ plants used in the sculpture. I used a photo of the title for the title of the page, and the nine small (greyish) photos are of the plants used in the sculpture. I took these photos when we visited Christchurch in January of this year, which was (obviously) prior to the earthquake which brought down the steeple of the cathedral you can see in the background of the night photo.

I love your comments, so please feel free to leave me some!

Till next time, happy days!

Francine

16 years & counting...

2011-03-01T17:40:00.013+11:00

Well, I'm combining challenges again! I used the monthly challenge kit from Wrapped in Paper (who finally have a website, yay!), the sketch from our monthly challenge at the Crop Room II, and added brads and bling as required in the challenge at Southern Girls. Not bad I guess, killing three birds with one stone! So, without further ado - here's my layout

and here is the challenge pack I started with. It contained a piece of lilac coloured Bazzill cardstock, papers from Kaisercraft (I know I often say I dislike the papers in the kit, but this time they were really terrible!) The front sides were way to gaudy and kitsch IMHO (see left hand picture), so I used the backs that were much plainer (see right hand picture), although I did cut some hearts out of the purple coloured paper (the middle one in the left hand picture). There were also five different ribbons/laces - a pink velvet, pink/white gingham, yellow rick rack, red loopy ribbon and white eyelet lace. They actually turned out to be easier to use than the papers! As well there two large chipboard hearts (one with a removable centre) a chipboard crown, and three (round) red buttons.

It took me a while to decide what photos I would use with this kit. I finally decided since there were hearts all over the paper, that I would make a layout with a picture of me and Gary, after all I rarely scrap pictures of me and since we didn't have a recent shot of us, I asked Kyaa to take a picture. She loves using my new camera so was happy to oblige. We even got several good photos where we both look good!

I also decided I'd use this sketch from the CRII challenge. I actually turned the sketch a quarter turn to the right, and then I had lots of fun going through my stash looking for heart embellishments - buttons, brads, bling, stickers, etc.

The paper was a bit bland when I used the back sides, so I stitched the paper onto the cardstock which added some more colour and made it stand out. Stitching also allowed me to stitch on the lace (which I threaded with the rick rack first) as a ruffle and attach the red loopy ribbon all at the same time.

I attached the round buttons from the kit with heart shaped brads. I like how they look. I also found a heart shaped paper clip but wasn't sure how to attach that, but in the end filled it with Diamond Glaze so it kind of became an epoxy like sticker. Worked like a charm! The hardest item from kit to use was the chipboard crown! By putting the shaped paper clip between our heads on the picture though, the crown just naturally seemed to fit above it - so voila!

I painted the chipboard pieces with my twinkling H2Os. I stamped the XOXOXOXO stamp that Kyaa bought me for Christmas onto the white chipboard 1 in the title. The chipboard 16 came from my TLC selling days. I do love those monogram chipboard letters and numbers because you don't have to paint or cover them, but I'm gradually starting to run out of them :( The glitter alphas were a cheap buy from one of the $2 shops around town. I just put them through my Xyron X sticker maker so that I could attach them.

The rest of the hearts were from my stash and have been there for a loooooooong time! I have no idea where they're from. I did cut a few of the hearts out of the patterned paper as I said before, and drew over the words and borders with my favourite Sakura gelly roll stardust pens. I attached some of the hearts with foam mounting tape to raise them up a bit.

All in all, I like how this one turned out. I guess it's good to be challenged to use something you don't necessarily like in the first place and see what you can come up with!

Till next time, happy days!

Francine

Christchurch in Ruins

2011-03-01T00:14:00.019+11:00

At the last minute, I decided I wanted to enter my online friend Ingeborg's Scrapbooking Competition for February. She provides the sketch, one of her own making this month, and you make the layout. Having visited Christchurch in January I have been quite heartbroken by the scenes of devastation that have taken place there following the earthquake last week. As we stayed in a hotel right next door to the Cathedral, and visited inside it, it has been especially poignant. Christchurch is such a beautiful city and we certainly enjoyed visiting there. It seems so unfair, and my heart goes out to the families who have lost loved ones, homes, businesses, etc in the quake. So, here is my tribute to their city, or their Cathedral at least.

I took the photographs on the left when we were there. The night time photo was taken from our hotel room, and the other one from Cathedral Square. I got the photograph of the ruined Cathedral from the internet (it was taken by UK TV I think).

Here is the sketch I started with.

Most of the things I used came from my stash. I bought the papers (Kaisercraft) just the other day, but everything else I've had for some time. Here are the ones I can remember:

cardstock - Bazzill

pearls - Kaisercraft

chipboard shapes - A2Z Scraplets painted with twinkling H2Os (persimmon, skyblue).

Since I needed 3x C's and 3x H's (for Christchurch), I found these silver alphabet sticker letters were the only ones in my stash that were small enough and had enough of each letter, so those are the ones I went with. Unfortunately they didn't really show up against the cardstock. So, I painted over/around them with the twinkling H2Os, then rubbed it off the letter stickers. I think that turned out quite well.

Here are some closeups.

If you are in New Zealand, and Christchurch especially, I send you my deepest sympathy and hope that you will be able to recover from this tragedy in time. I hope to return there some time in the future to see what it has once again become.

Till next time, happy days.

Francine

Farmers' Filing Cabinets

2011-02-12T12:22:00.018+11:00

I love Becky Fleck's page maps, and she has a competition on her blog that is open to scrapbookers worldwide this month (which doesn't often happen), so it was definitely time to enter! The Southern Girls challenge this fortnight is blue & brown, two colours I love together, so I decided to combine these two challenges and use some Kaisercraft paper I had just picked up that happened to be the right colours!

Originally I was going to do a layout about our day on the glacier at Franz Josef, but the colours in the photos didn't go with the papers at all! So, instead I opted for these photos. They are of beehives that we saw everywhere in our travels through the Otago region of New Zealand. While we were on our bicycle tour our guide joked that they weren't "farmers' filing cabinets" so that's where the title came from.

Anyway, without further ado, here is my layout.

And here's Becky's sketch.

This layout is kind of a hybrid layout I guess.

Instead of using paper for the middle square that the photo sits on, I used a photograph of the beehives in the field as the background. I typed the journalling and title directly onto the photo, then had it printed out on photographic paper. (Fonts are 'Marker Fine Point' [one of my favourites] for the journalling, and 'Hotel Coral Essex' for the title.) I attached the closeup photo using mounting tape.

Paper: Kaisercraft Prairie Lane collection

Pearls: Kaisercraft.

Ribbon: Brown velvet, and blue velvet rickrack both from inque ribbon

Pens: Sakura (I coloured directly over the title onto the background photograph.)

Tiny Alpha stickers: Kaisercraft (on the blue paper under the photograph)

Brads, buttons, floss from my stash.

Here are some closeup shots.

Till next time, happy days!

Francine

A Scrap Lift - Eco-rafting

2011-02-04T12:12:00.015+11:00

Hello everyone. It's been a while since I posted, but we were in New Zealand for three weeks, so I think I had a good excuse, LOL! We had a fantastic time and now I have lots of pictures that I can scrapbook, although based on last year's trip that might not happen for quite a while!

Anyway, I recently received a copy of "the Complete Scrapbooking Handbook" through this offer. There was a layout in there (Sweetheart) by Missy Neal that I really liked. This is it (at the right):

I decided to use a picture from our trip, and the January monthly scrapbooking challenge kit from my LSS, Wrapped in Paper. I even remembered to take a picture of it too so you could see it before I cut it up. Want to see? Here it is.

I didn't really like that papers as I didn't think they really matched the bling cardstock. However, since the rules state that you have to use at least a little bit of everything in the kit, scraplifting this layout was perfect because I could use the papers I didn't like (the one with the rainbow particularly) very sparingly!

As well as using these papers, I also wanted to enter the Southern Girls challenge. This time it was to use some dry embossing somewhere, and since my in-laws (parents and sister) banded together to buy me a Big Shot for my birthday/Christmas I was dying to use it! So this is what I came up with:

I used a piece of the rainbow paper I disliked so much and embossed the back side of it. I rubbed some brown ink over it to make the embossing stand out. I did the same to the chipboard shape and was

pleasantly surprised to see that it worked too! The bird and branches on the right were made with my Stampin Up! two step bird punch. I added the rubons (the birds on the left, and butterfly and hearts on the right by Kaisercraft) from my stash. The only other thing not from the kit were the title letters. They are foam stickers by tim & tess. Originally they were a baby blue colour, but they just didn't match, see... so I took out my trusty Sakura stardust pens and recoloured them. Boy I love those pens - the ink flows so easily, you can easily colour large areas, and the bling they add is gorgeous! (If you've been reading my blog for any time, by now you might be thinking that Sakura is paying me to say these things, but really they're not. If they wanted to though, LOL ... I'd be open to it!)

I'll leave you with some close up shots.

On another happy note, when I took this entry in to Wrapped in Paper this week, I found out that I won last month's challenge with this layout! I haven't won a challenge there for ages so that was a very pleasant surprise. I'll pick up my prize when I pick up the layout at the end of the month.

In the meantime, if you're in Nicholls and feel like dropping in to Wrapped in Paper to vote for my entry this month, I'd appreciate it!

Till next time, happy days!

Francine

CRII - December Challenge

2011-01-01T17:52:00.011+11:00

OK - Post number three for today! See, I told you I would make up for not posting in December!

So this post is about the December CRII challenge. The layout was based on a Nov 2010 Page Maps sketch. While I had decided on the photographs to use, I had trouble finding paper that I liked. In the end I went for plain papers with the central vertical piece only being patterned. I had it in my stash, it's by 7 Gypsies (I think!). The paper under the title on the left is actually a K&Co tag that I cut in half. Ribbon is from my stash (left over from an LSS challenge I think) and the title letters and embellishments are both sticker sheets that I bought from one of those $2 shops. For the embellishments I stuck the stickers onto some white cardstock and then cut them out. I stuck them onto the page using foam mounting squares. To make the swirl at the bottom I used my new gold gel pen (a Christmas present since my last pen ran out) and my new Swirly Doodles (Hot off the Press) template. The template is really easy to use as there are several swirls that depending on how you put them together make different flourishes. There are suggestions on the template explaining exactly how to put them together.

While this layout is quite simple, I'm pleased with how it turned out.

For the card, it was a straight scraplift. Unfortunately Sue didn't know where she saved it from in the first place, so sorry I can't acknowledge the maker :( Here is the original on the left, and my version on the right. Mine is nowhere near as nice when I see them side by side, but at least I had a go!

Till next time, happy days!

Francine

CRII - November Challenge

2011-01-01T17:01:00.012+11:00

Yes, I know, it says November challenge, but the two of us left in the year long challenge both forgot to do the November challenge, so the organiser decided we should have to the end of December to finish November and December! Thank you Sue! Sue is so sweet, organising all the challenges for us and helping us with inspriation.

If you've been reading my blog for any time, you know that the CRII challenge involves a card and a layout. The cards are always challenging for me as I really don't enjoy making cards much, but this one was reasonably simple. Here it is, along with the sketch (originally from Page Maps):

I made the flowers with my Sullivans daisy punches adding a rhinestone centre, used a rectangular die cut tag from my stash for the vase, and drew the flower stems in with a green marker. The die cut tag was a bit plain so I drew the flourish on using the Swirly Q's template from The Crafter's Workshop.

For the layout, this was the sketch by Susan Stringfellow of sketchsavvy.blogspot.com. It was meant for an 8.5"x11" page, so I stretched it to fit a 12"x12" page. I also made the photograph larger.

Earlier this week we drove to Sydney to visit friends and family. For the first time in a long time there was water in Lake George! On the way home we stopped at the lookout and I took some photos that I stitched together to make this panorama. Here's the layout.

All the papers come from my stash. Mostly they are TLC papers, except for the brown ones (left over from some LSS monthly layout challenges I think), and the blue/white patterned paper circles which is definitely left over from the Dec Wrapped in Paper challenge from the previous post. The ribbon is from my stash (bought at Costco when we were living in Canada) and the arrow and flourish are from the Tim Holtz mixed minis grungeboard collection and painted with twinkling H2Os. The title is Heidi Swapp ghost alphabet, attached with bronze coloured brads.

This is not one of my favourite layouts, but it will do.

Till next time, happy days!

Francine

Sweet Little Man

2011-01-01T16:01:00.007+11:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Wow - no posts in December! Well, I guess with the end of school, finishing off things at work in order to close down for a longer period, and all things Christmas related, I really haven't had time. So, to make up for it, I'm going to try and do several posts today with the challenges I finished just in time for the end of the year!

The kit for December's Wrapped in Paper layout competition wasn't one of my favourites. Once again I forgot to take a picture of the kit before I cut it up, so you'll have to make due with a description of the inclusions: pastel yellow cardstock, an A4 sized piece of white cardstock, three 6"x12" pieces of baby blue and white patterned paper, a large yellow flower, a piece of thin yellow ribbon, two other lengths of ribbon/lace - one blue, one white, a shaped piece of chipboard, a card of blue elliptical shaped bling, and a pearl set brad. The whole thing screamed baby to me, so I dug through my old photos and found two pictures of Logan at 7 months old (some 13 years ago). I used a sketch from Ingeborg Dijkstra-Verbeek from her scrapbooking competition website, and here is the final result:

The only things I added to the kit were the butterfly stickers, phrase/letter stickers and the title. The title was made with TLC/Breezy Designs rub on toppings. It does actually say 'sweet' with a flourish above 'little man' and I tried to rub white flock onto the adhesive, but it really didn't work. You can (kind of) see it in real life, but not in this picture! I used blue foil for the 'little man' part of the title. I inked all the edges of the papers with some blue ink from my stash and painted the chipboard shape with some blue twinkling H2Os then cut out a piece of blue paper to fit the inside of the shape. I had a sticker sheet with Logan on it that I bought in the US, and the other phrases came from a sticker book that I received for Christmas. The bottom phrase used to say "Our bundle of joy, our sweet little boy", only after I stuck it on I realised that it actually said budle, not bundle, so I cut the top line off. I guess that's what you get when you buy "Made in China" :P

If you're wondering where the white lace is, I cut one small piece of it and stuck it at the bottom of the vertical piece of patterned paper using the brad, and the flower I cut up into pieces and stuck it behind the chipboard. Other than the fact that the background is pastel yellow, I really like how this turned out.

And finally, here is the sketch that Ingeborg made. She does beautiful work and you can check it out on her blog. Why not participate in her monthly challenge at her scrapbooking competition blog too?

Till next time, happy days!

Francine

Dream

2010-11-29T23:49:00.016+11:00

(Post updated 1/1/11 to include photos of kaleidoscopes, and video of card opening.)
Ugh, I missed the deadline again, or so I thought! I wanted to enter the Southern Girls Favourite Colour challenge, and when I checked the site when I got home from work, Mr Linky said there were 17 hours to go, so I thought I had plenty of time. When I went to post my entry I found that it had expired 46 minutes earlier, and that was only about 6 hours after I had checked! I couldn't understand how that happened, but it turned out the girls had been doing something on the site and accidentally mucked up the Mr Linky thing. So, thanks to Louise for coming to look at my entry and posting it on the challenge for me! So, what did I make and what's my favourite colour? Here's the story. Two weekends ago, I did a class at my LSS, Wrapped in Paper. It was to make a Flip Flop card they called it. I'm not really a card maker, but this one intrigued me, so I had to participate. Well, it turns out that the card itself is actually really easy to make, the embellishing is what takes the time. Every time I open the card though, even though I know how it's made, I keep thinking, wow, this is amazing. The card has four "sides" to it. You open the first page to get to the second page, then open that one to get to a third page. Opening that page takes you to a fourth page and opening that page takes you back to the beginning. It's kind of like a Rubiks cube - well kind of! I'm not sure if it will show up well here, but here are the photos of each page and the opening up in between each one. (You can click on them to see them larger.) So, any guesses on what my favourite colour is? Well, just in case you couldn't tell, it's yellow :) This is a hybrid project. All the 'pictures' are kaleidoscopes that I made from the same photograph of yellow/orange tulips. I put the frames around them using Photoshop Elements, as well as adding the text. I printed them out and stuck them on the yellow cardstock base. Unfortunately these pictures are not so great, so the sayings are hard to see. They are: "Don't dream your life, live your dreams." and "Everyday is another chance to make your dreams come true.". These are the kaleidoscopes that I used, as well as the original photograph that the kaleidoscopes were made from.
And finally, here is a video I shot of how the card opens, with my 13yo son acting as the hand model. You gotta love his thumbs up at the end!

Till next time, happy days! Francine

On the Amazon River

2010-11-15T23:24:00.006+11:00

The latest challenge at Southern Girls Challenge is to use something pertaining to transport/travel. Well considering the amount of travelling we've done, I figured this had to be easy, but it was actually difficult to decide and in the end I decided to use the photos themselves. I picked some photographs from our trip to the Amazon in 2007. They're of our trip down the river. Considering we spent such a long time actually on the river getting to our destination, I figured they were worthy of a layout and an explanation.

I used papers from Stampin Up! namely tea Party Designer Series Paper, and barely banana cardstock. I cut some flowers out of the patterned paper to use as embellishments, some of which I stuck on with foam tape. I highlighted some of the flowers with my Sakura star pens (love them!). I also used a piece of ribbon from my stash, as well as a couple of flower brads. For the title I used some flocked chipboard and small foam letters, also from my stash. The font I used for the journalling is one of my favourites - Marker Fine Point.
Here are a few close ups.

Till next time, happy days!

Francine

Beautiful Curse - digital version

2010-11-08T23:39:00.006+11:00

For days I have been travelling past this field on my way to and from work that is covered in purple flowers, called Paterson’s Curse, Echium plantagineum (and known as Salvation Jane in South Australia). It is actually toxic to grazing animals and classed as a noxious weed in parts of Australia. After the Canberra bushfires in 2003 apparently tens of horses had to be put down after eating it for several months. Despite its terrible consequences to grazing animals, it is an amazing sight. I have been meaning to take my camera with me to work and stop and take some pictures, but kept forgetting. Finally last weekend I made a conscious effort to go and take some pictures. They turned out fabulously and I couldn’t resist making a layout straight away. I turned to one of my favourite sites for digital templates – Ideas for Scrapbookers – and picked a suitable template (Two Curves - see further down). The layout came together very quickly.

The template I used is this one. I flipped it 90 degrees first. Before I started, I also made a kaleidoscope from one of the close up photos and used that for the side strips of “paper” in the layout and to make the square embellishments. I picked the purple colour for the “paper” and “cardstock” from the pictures. Stupidly I didn’t write down the name of the font I used so I’m afraid I can’t give credit for it. I have a list of fonts a mile long and can’t find it back again now (and believe me I tried!). So, if you know what it is, please let me know!

I’ve subsequently made a paper layout with one of the pictures as well, but you’ll have to wait for another day for me to blog about that one. I even made some of the patterned paper for the layout as well!

Till next time, happy days.

Francine

Last minute competition entry

2010-11-05T17:22:00.006+11:00

I decided very last minute to enter my online friend Ingeborg's sketch competition. The sketch she used for this month's competition is one that she designed herself.

Once I decided which photograph to use, the rest came together fairly quickly. It is made almost entirely from leftovers in my stash and I don't know where most of it came from! The only things I do know are: TLC (emperor) cardstock, Kaszazz bling rub on (right hand side), Kaisercraft Argentella rub on (the large one to the left of the photo), and Say it in Crystals black crystal flourish. The bottom paper rectangle, is in fact a piece of green cardstock (same as under the photo) covered by a piece of sheer ribbon with white and purple flourish print on it that I bought at Aldi.

The photo was made beside one of the tulip beds at Floriade. Every year since we moved to Canberra, I have taken a photograph of the children in the flowers that grow in the grass just outside the entrance to Floriade. This year though, someone mowed it!!! It was very disappointing and we had to go find another spot for the photo instead. I guess I should just be happy that I can still get the kids to pose for me!

Here area couple of close ups.

Till next time, happy days.

Francine

BC Government House Gardens

2010-11-05T16:40:00.008+11:00

For the October CRII year long challenge I made a layout with photos from our visit to the grounds of British Columbia's Lieutenant Governor's residence at 1401 Rockland Ave, Victoria, BC. This house is not far from my parents house and we were able to walk there to visit the grounds which are open to the public. There are fantastic views of the Olympic Mountains in Washington state, but none of the pictures I used for this layout featured any of those views! So, without further ado, here's the layout.

It was made from this sketch.

The papers I used are from the Bali Breeze set from SU!. I used some felt flowers from SU!'s flower fusion set, and a couple of flowers from Bo Bunny as well. The letters for the title are from artsy.licious by Chatterbox (peacock colour). The small letters are from my stash.

I didn't really like this sketch too much, although I'm not unhappy with the resulting layout. It's better than I expected, but won't ever be one of my favourites.

As well as the layout challenge, there is also a card sketch. Here are the card and sketch it was made from.

I used the same papers as for the layout, along with a flower, rub on and butterfly from my stash. I'm not an avid card maker and I think this card turned out OK, but not great. I think it would have been better if the ovals weren't scalloped, but I don't have a plain oval punch. I hope whoever I end up giving it too though will appreciate it.

I'll be back a bit later with another layout from last month.

Till next time, happy days.

Francine

I Made Top 5!!!

2010-11-05T15:25:00.003+11:00

I entered this layout I made for my online friend's grandson in the recent Southern Girls glitter challenge, and I was a top 5 pick! I think that's not bad from 86 great entries. Now I just need to remember how to add the badge!

Six Artist Trading Cards

2010-10-24T21:19:00.016+11:00

In July I participated in my first Artist’s Trading Card (ATC) swap with my friends on CRII. For those of you who have never made an ATC before, they are small cards - 2.5" x 3.5" in size. They began as ways for artists to trade information, but many different kinds of artists, including scrapbookers have started making them now. In scrapbooking/card making circles they make great swap items as they are relatively easy and quick to make. These are the first ones I have ever made, and I think I'm hooked now! (You can see some great ATCs on this blog.)

But back to my story... In the first swap I took part in there were two strings with 9 people in each. The first challenge string was to use a button on the ATC. Here’s my take on it.

It was made from scraps that I had. I stamped the SU! butterfly stamp onto a piece of white cardstock with some rainbow ink that I had not used in years. I cut the butterfly out, then stuck it to a piece of yellow gingham paper which I had rounded the corners of. I strung some seed beads on to make the butterfly body, and sewed some antennae on with silver thread. I sewed a silver swirl onto the patterned paper and added the requisite button. I stuck the patterned paper, butterfly and button onto some yellow cardstock and wrote the word Life in purple pen on the side. I finished it off with a doodled border in purple pen.

The second challenge string was to make an ATC using black and white and one other colour. I decided to use gold. I had an idea, but when I started to make it it turned into something completely different! In the end, this is what I made.

I stamped and embossed the angel onto scrap white cardstock, then cut it out. I printed the saying “Friendship is a knot that angel hands have tied” nine times onto white cardstock. I overstamped it in gold ink using my “En Français” SU! stamp. I punched it out with a SU! label punch and drew a border around the edge with gold pen. I then made a friendship knot from gold ribbon. I used these instructions.
After cutting the black and white patterned paper (from my TLC stash), I distressed the edges and attached it to the black cardstock base. I added the angel stamp, the friendship knot and the saying, which I attached with gold eyelets and rhinestones. I stitched a small corner using daisy chain stitch in gold thread, and added a gold photo corner sticker. This was my least favourite of the two ATCs I made, mostly because it didn’t turn out how I had envisioned it in my head.

I really enjoyed the whole process of making the ATCs and was keen to participate in the second swap in August/September. There were 9 people again participating in two strings. The theme of the first string was “hot pink and orange”. I decided to use the new Kaisercraft flourish stamp I had recently purchased. I wanted to try using the emboss resist technique. Unfortunately it didn’t work the way it was meant to, probably because I was using the wrong type of ink, but it still turned out ok. I ended us stamping everyone’s initials in hot pink and cutting them out. I attached each letter along with a felt flower from the Flower Fusion set from SU! using a brad. Finally I attached the stamped design to a piece of hot pink cardstock. I think these turned out really nicely.

The fourth cards that I made were about birds. These are my favourite ATCs of the bunch. I printed the saying “It is not only fine feathers that make fine birds. ~ Aesop” onto some green SU! patterned paper. Then I just started adding feathers and cardstock leaves punched out with the SU! two step bird punch. I finished each ‘nest’ with a little cardstock bird from Scrapmatts which I had coloured with my Sakura pens. Each ATC was slightly different because of the feathers, but each one turned out nicely. It was hard trying to decide which one to keep for myself! Here’s what they looked like.

This month, I entered another ATC swap at CRII. There were only 7 people participating this time. The theme for the first string was Pink & Lime, a Tropical Christmas. For some reason the first thing that came into my head was palm trees. So I set out in search of palm tree clip art to download from the internet. Sadly I didn’t record where I found this tree (so if anyone can tell me, please do so I can give proper credit). I printed seven copies on thick white card, and coloured them in with my watercolour pencils, then cut them out. I stuck them to the pink cardstock, added a little bell with lime green floss, and stamped a Merry Christmas circle stamp (maker unknown), with a small square stamp from studio g (VC0012 Series 32) and inked the edges of the card, all with SU! green galore ink. I added a bit of sparkle with my pink Sakura star pen to some of the stars between the Merry Christmas words. Here it is.

The last ATC that I made is one of my favourites. The theme was Gothic Arch. There are some absolutely stunning samples out there on the internet which made my first attempt look absolutely juvenile. I ended up redoing them. I printed my saying “open your heart and let your love fly free” onto some green TLC paper from my stash. The font I used is called Angelic War. I can’t find any reference to this saying anywhere. As it just popped in my head, I’m thinking that I made it up, please correct me if I’m wrong though! Anyway, I cut the words out and used my distressing tool to distress the edges of the paper. I then stamped the SU! kiwi kiss green cardstock with clear Versamark ink. I used the butterfly, flowers and swirls stamp from Autumn Leaves Block Stamps 2. then I cut out the gothic arch shape from the cards. Next I stamped the border stamp from SU! vintage vogue set in bronze versamark ink along the bottom of each card. Then I stamped the flower swirl stamp from the same set at the top left side of the arch. I punched the hearts from some scrap paper from my stash and then it was time to put it al together. I added a gold heart brad to the cards, then realised that I was 3 brads short! I ended up using Stamp N Bond to add glitter to the brads. Then the gold ones didn’t look good anymore, so I glittered them too. I added some pink coloured wings, antennae and a little trail to each brad so it looked kind of like an insect. When I showed the new card and the old card to Logan he said the new ones were a gazillion times better! I agree! I hope the ladies like them.

I’d love to know what you think of my ATCs. Please leave me a comment, I love reading them. It’s great to know I can share my work with people all over the world through my blog.

Till next time, happy days!

Francine

Mend a Broken Heart - Take 2

2010-10-24T13:50:00.013+11:00

You may have seen my layout here, about my daughter's open heart surgery as a baby. While I made it for a Page Maps competition, it was kind of inspired by the fact that one of my online friends in the US was going through the same thing at the time with her grandson. Well, Evan has had his surgery and is well on his way to a full recovery. I really liked my layout of Kyaa and asked whether I could do a similar layout for Evan. I'll be sending it to his parents next week.

Kyaa's layout used the black and white monthly competition kit from my LSS. I just added all the pink touches since she was wearing a pink top in the photo. Since I still had enough paper left from the kit I made Evan's exactly the same, but with different embellishments and I used blue instead of pink. Kyaa actually likes Evan page better than hers, but then she doesn't like pink! I like the blue version too, but I still like the pink version as well.

Enough chit chat - here are both layouts side by side so you can judge for yourself.

I think I'm going to change a few things on Kyaa's layout before I hand it in for the competition, like adding some feathers to the chipboard heart embellishment, and doing the white lace as a pull on the tag like I did on Evan's (If I can get it off first without damaging the layout!), and changing the clear DYMO tape for pink at the bottom of the layout.

I decided also to enter Evan's layout into the Southern Girls challenge. You can do anything as long as you add glitter. Well, all the blue colouring in was done with my Sakura star pens which add lots of glitter, and the 'lace' type border along the bottom is also glittered. It was white to begin with and I actually rubbed ink over it to turn it blue. It turned out really well IMHO. Here are some close up pics so you can see.

Even the flower I used on the chipboard heart embellishment has sparkle in the ribbon!

Speaking of glitter, I was making a set of Artist Trading Cards last night as well and I ran out of gold heart brads. I was three short, and yes I should have checked how many I had before deciding to use them, but I didn't, so I had to come up with something else. Well, I used different coloured brads and used Stamp N Bond adhesive powder to add gold glitter to them. I hadn't used this product before and it worked great! Here's what the previously green heart brad looks like now:

I'll do a post soon about the ATCs I've been making recently so you can see the whole thing that I used the brad on.

Till then, happy days!

Francine

Geocaching in the Aussie Bush

2010-10-10T22:59:00.008+11:00

There's a blog I like to look at called Ideas for Scrapbookers. There are lots of great layouts for inspiration, tutorials and best of all templates to follow! Pam Callaghan is the blog owner and the maker of all these wonderful templates. I really liked her latest template and couldn't resist downloading it and making a digital layout with it. I didn't download the PSD template, just the jpeg of the frame itself. I then made a similar but different (IYKWIM!) layout with it. Here's the frame, and my layout.

I started with the frame and used a clipping mask with this kaleidoscope made from the photo of lichen on a rock (also shown here).

I then added the background colours, taken from colours in the photo. I added the photograph and some special effects. Finally I added the text. The font is JoeHand. I'm pleased with how this turned out. Now if I could only find a place to print these digital layouts in Australia at a reasonable price I'd be completely satisfied!

Till next time, happy days!

Francine

Mend a Broken Heart

2010-10-06T22:03:00.010+11:00

I made this layout for the Ally Scraps sketch contest over at PageMaps. Becky accidentally used this sketch for her last contest as well, but I don’t mind since I love this sketch and I couldn’t enter the last contest as it was only open to US residents. Initially it was a real toss up as to which photo I would use. In the end, I opted for this photo of Kyaa, taken ten days after her open heart surgery when she was 10.5 months old. I think it is my all-time favourite photo. She is so full of life and happy – you would never know she had had three and a half hours of heart surgery and been in the paediatric intensive care unit only two weeks earlier! The hearts in the sketch also just kind of leant themselves to use this picture too. So, want to see the layout?

Here’s the sketch it was based on.

I combined this challenge with the monthly Layout kit from my LSS, Wrapped in Paper. Once again I forgot to take a picture of the kit before I started cutting it up, but basically it contained two pieces of Bazzil cardstock – white and black. It also had two 6” x12” pieces of double sided patterned paper as well as a 6”x6” piece. I don’t know who any of them were made by, but they were all black and white. There were also 3 pieces of lace (1 white, 2 black), a large black flower, a large skeleton leaf, a flocked lace like border sticker, a large white shipping tag, and a gorgeous small white rose. One of the rules of the monthly competition is that you have to use at least a little of everything. That was hard with this sketch, since there was only one spot for ribbon/lace, and nowhere for the flowers or the tag. So I improvised, and added them – but then, that’s what using a sketch is all about, using it as a base and then making it your own.

I also wasn’t enamoured with the fact that the papers were all black and white, and the 6”x6” piece was actually black and cream. I fixed that one by colouring in the cream dots on one side, and the cream flowers on the other with my pink Sakura stardust pen. (Are you sick of hearing about these yet? They’re my favourite ‘tool’ at the moment if you hadn’t guessed!) I also added the pink and white daisy paper as a mat under the picture, and for two of the little hearts, as well as another piece of pink paper for the larger heart. These were all in my scraps. The white chipboard heart is from my TLC days, and the journalling/title was made with my Dymo Caption Maker and some pink (and some clear) Dymo tape. I put the tag for some journaling in the pocket behind the photograph. To finish off the layout I stitched on some beads instead of stitching through the hearts themselves as in the sketch.

The dymo tape says: When you mend a BROKEN HEART your reward is a SMILE like this {3 heart symbols} (10 days after open heart surgery).

I really like how this one turned out. I hope you do to!

Finally - on another note - subconsciously I think one of the reasons I decided to use this photograph today is because, little Evan, the grandson of my online friend Kathy, is having open heart surgery in the US today. He has a similar problem to what Kyaa had, but in a different area of the heart. His family is full of trepidation about the whole thing (who wouldn't be?!). Having been through it though, I'm sure it won't be long till young Evan has as gorgeous a smile on his face as Kyaa did. Mandy, Kathy, Obee and Ed, we're thinking of you today and await the news that all went well with Evan's surgery!

Till next time - happy days!

Francine

An Autumn Card Freebie

2010-09-27T12:57:00.022+10:00

On the CRII member's forum that I belong to, I've been doing a year long challenge that requires the making of a layout, and a card each month. This month the card challenge was to read this passage, close your eyes and try to visualise what you have read and then create a card from that. The skies the limit!!!

"Most of all, Autumn means colored leaves: a spectrum of shades between the green shades of summer and the dull browns of winter. Crimson, fiery red, maroon, ruddy orange, pure orange, yellow orange, soft yellows and bright yellows. Red maples, yellow birch, scarlet sycamores, aspen golds. Mottled leaves of several colours in transition. Each deciduous tree, each bush, strutting its own autumn wardrobe. Naked willows dancing in the wind. In their midst, the smug conifers stand. "Evergreen," they say to us, "ever green."

Ahhh, those bright autumn spells that bring out the most vivid of hues. Days so delightful you can almost taste the colour. And those cold, crisp nights when the air has its own special vintage to entice us back outdoors one last time. A bouquet matched in no other season — aged in Northern realms and blended just right.

This is how I see and have seen Autumn over my half century of life. I hope such joy and beauty, such stability and changeability, surprises and routines, continue through my next fifty. I love a good season, watching it turn, engendering days of joy and days of melancholy. Sorry, must go. Adventure lurks outside my door."

Well, I like autumn (it's a toss up between Spring and autumn as to which season I like better) and I have some photos of some of the trees in our neighbourhood that turn beautiful reds, oranges and yellows during autumn. I decided to make some kaleidoscopes from the pictures, and then thought why not make the whole card from scratch - literally. So I started with these two photos (not necessarily the best photos, especially the left one, but the colours are great!):

I then made a circular and a flower shaped kaleidoscope from the left photo, and a square shaped kaleidoscope from the right hand one. I then made the square one into kaleidoscope paper for the background of the card, then added a solid green inlay to put the flowers onto. I also used the cookie cutter tool to cut some leaf shapes from the square kaleidoscope. I printed a sentiment as well (font is "Just one more Picture'), taking the colour from the flower kaleidoscope. This is what the card ended up looking like when I finished it.

Do you want to make one too? Well you can (for personal use only, not to sell), and here's how.

You can try to right click on this photo, click on 'save target as' and save the print. However it appears that this is not printing out clearly enough, so please email me (email is in the left hand column) and I will send you the file, then print it out on thick white paper, or cardstock. It's scaled to fit an A4 sheet, so it should fit on letter size as well, although you might need to scale it slightly. The finished card will fit in a standard C6 sized envelope. (Sorry, I'm not sure what the US sizes are.)

Besides the print out, you will also need some Kaisercraft (deep yellow)rhinestones , glitter, glue dots, or craft glue, foam/mounting tape and double sided tape.

Step 1.
Cut out all the shapes, the sentiment and the card base. Note that you can make three large flowers and two small flowers from this print. I only used two large, and one small flower on the final card, so you could use the other two for another card, or a layout, or just not make them all. Similarly, I only used seven of the nine leaves. You should end up with this. (Remember you can click on any photos in this post to get a larger view.)

Step 2.
Cut slits about half way to the middle in all the grooves of the flowers. Try to actually cut from the groove, not next to it like I did!

Step 3.
Cut the circular kaleidoscopes into a spiral like this.

Step 4.
Take the end of a pen, paintbrush, etc - I used the end of my scalpel, and starting at the outside, curl the spiral onto the object until you get to the centre circle. (Please excuse the look of my fingernails - they break all the time so are very short just after they break. They're not as beautiful as I see in other people's blogs!)
I used sticky glue dots, but you could use craft glue, and put some adhesive on the centre circle, let the spiral open out a little and press it into the adhesive. I added a rhinestone to the centre, and on the larger circles, some gold coloured glitter as well to cover all the exposed glue. (See next picture to see the final result.)(Note, there are lots of people who have included this technique on their blogs, but the most recent post I saw about it was on DeAnna's blog here)

Step 5.
Curl under the petals on the flower around a pen or similar object. You can dampen the paper slightly (on the back if you have an ink jet printer) to make it a bit easier, but then you have to wait for it to dry completely before you can continue. I then put the flower in the palm of my hand pressing my finger in a circular motion into the centre of the flower to make the petals rise up a bit. (Does that make sense? - I don't know how else to describe it!) You should now have two parts of the flower - the outer petals, and the inner 'rose' section.

Step 6.
Put a glue dot in the middle of each flower and stick the 'rose' centre on top. join the bottom flaps of the leaves together so that they curl up a bit, and put some double sided tape across the back to keep them this way.

Step 7.
Put the card together. Either follow the layout I used, or use your own. I put the sentiment on with foam mounting tape, and stuck the leaves down, then put the flowers overlapping them. Here's a side on close up view.

I'd love to know if you download this card. Please leave me a comment and link me to a photo of your finished product!

Till next time, happy days!

Francine

Family predecessors

2010-09-20T23:53:00.019+10:00

I wanted to enter the new Southern Girls first challenge - 'anything goes'. I made a layout with my LSS's monthly layout kit and quickly put it up on the blog as time was running out. I'm afraid the picture was not so great as it was taken at night under artificial light and that never really works well. So here's the result:

Later though, I kept looking at it and decided I needed to add something, as well as putting some journalling on. The layout now looks like this:

The kit that I started with had a piece of Bazzill cardstock, two pieces of Kaisercraft patterned paper (Loire Valley - Celandine and Dahlia), several diamond/oval shaped rhinestones, a piece of striped ribbon and a piece of leaf ribbon, a wooden frame and a chipboard flourish. Here's the kit before I cut it up!

I loosely based my layout on this sketch from Twisted Sketches.

I loved the edge detail on the Celadine paper so cut it out and used it as my "border" under the picture. I turned the paper over then and used the dotted side under the border and added the leaf ribbon with some gold coloured brads. I coloured the chipboard flourish and the wooden frame with my Sakura star pens. I really do love that sparkle, and the ink flows so easily. Then I made a five petalled (is that actually a word?) flower out of the striped ribbon, and added a button into the middle using foam tape. I got the flower instructions from a video by Shar . (BTW - If you live in NZ or Aus, you can become a member of the forum she made just for us - it's called Crafting Passionz. Just click on the Join Our Group button at the bottom of the left hand column.)
I inked all the edges of the papers with black chalk ink, added part of a 'Say it in Crystals' flourish, some Dymo tape subtitles, and a red flocked Family sticker (from the Anna Griffin Flora Collection that I won from an online crop - thanks Sue) for the title.

Here are some closeups too.

Finally, just in case you're curious, this is a photograph of my father (the toddler), his sister, parents and grandparents. It was taken about 1936. My grandfather is riding a tandem with his mother-in-law, and my great-grandfather is looking rather stern, while his daughter, my grandmother is looking quite happy with herself. I had to call my dad today (it was his birthday recently) so I took the opportunity to confirm my grandparents and great-grandparents' names to put it on the page. I had tried to find somewhere online to find them, and ended up spending quite a while building a family tree on ancestry.com instead. Very interesting, but time consuming! I'll get on there again another day, but now I want to do some more scrapping!

Till next time, happy days. And oh yeah, if you're in Gold Creek at Wrapped in Paper next month, please vote for me!

Francine

Birdworld

2010-08-30T00:36:00.009+10:00

PageMaps blog is having another sketch challenge. The prize is 16 pieces of chipboard from Dusty Attic as well as an ornate shadow box kit. So, since this one was open to people all over the world, I decided to enter. This is the result.

I liked the sketch,
but had trouble choosing the paper to use. Once that was chosen though, the rest came together quite quickly. In the end I used a piece of patterned paper from a recently purchased pad of (Garden Party)papers from DCWV. The blue flowers in the corners matched perfectly the SU blue paper I had already chosen to use! I added some feathers that I had bought on a whim, as well as the Scrapmatts birds that I purchased at the Craft Fair at the beginning of the month. I added a couple of leaves made with the SU bird punch, and coloured the birds with my Sakura pens. I drew a quick border around the pictures, added the silver brad letters title, and a Dymo subtitle. The journalling I put on a journalling sticker from one of my SU Simply Scrappin kits. It reads:
While Gary read his paper outside, I spent an hour or so with the birds at Birdworld. Since the blue & gold macaw loves chewing it was suggested that I remove my earrings before going in! Just as well. Sam the black cockatoo was just content to sit on my shoulders.
Here are a couple more shots.

And here's a shot of the blue & gold macaw chewing my hat, and thankfully not my earrings as I had taken them off. Apparently a woman lost her stud earrings earlier in the day because she didn't take them off, but the bird did!

Till next time, happy days!

Francine

It's never too late I guess...

2010-08-27T22:14:00.012+10:00

I had decided that I was going to apply for the Design Team on a new challenge blog called Southern Girls Challenge, especially for ladies down under. Well, I didn't read the instructions properly! I'm so used to entering challenges that close at midnight, that I didn't take in that the challenge ended at 3pm (New Zealand time)! I haven't had any time to work on the layout until today, the last day, although I knew exactly what I was going to do. Anyway, long story short, by the time I finished it and went to send the email I saw the post "Call closed". So, instead of entering the DT call, I'm just showing all of you what I made. Hope you like it - I really do! Gary even says it's one of my better layouts!

Remember this layout I made from a sketch from Beggahuna? Well, I liked that sketch so much that I had to use it again. This layout turned out completely different. For starters this picture is landscape as in the sketch rather than portrait like the last one. I used lots of chipboard painted with Twinkling H2Os and/or my new Sakura pens (bought at the Craft show at the beginning of the month). For the circle, this time I used a piece of wire strung with beads. One of my friends, Lainie, is competing in a challenge at the moment that required you to use wire, so that gave me the idea. The background paper is from the Halloween Spotlight kit from Breezy, and the green papers are from Stampin Up! I borrowed my neighbour's eyelet border punch (thanks Katrina, I promise to return it soon!) to use on the cardstock strip, and put a Kaszazz rubon on there as well. The big butterfly at the bottom comes from the craft fair too, and was also coloured with my new Sakura pens. In fact, I went a bit crazy with the pens. I love the sparkle! The sparkle from the Twinkling H2Os is sooooo much more subtle and less obvious! But, it's great to match up embellishments. I used it on the chipboard, as well as the large butterfly, the Tim Holtz grungeboard letters (love them!) and the little bead butterflies. Those butterfly beads were actually blue and a funny creamy orange colour before I painted them.

Anyway, want to see some close ups? Here they are:

Sorry about the quality of some of these shots. They were taken indoors at night, not the best conditions in which to take pictures like these.

Well, I have set my sights on several more competitions that all need to be done before the end of the month, so I better hop to it!

By the way, in case you were wondering, the picture on the layout was taken at Floriade last year (Sept 2009). It's a tradition in our family - every year I take a picture of the kids in the flowers just outside the gate to Floriade. Last year, I even convinced Gary to come along. We brought the tripod along too, set the the timer on the camera, and, hooray, a whole family shot! Maybe it will work this year again - only 2 weeks to wait till Floriade opens for this year to find out. Hopefully the rain will stop before then - I've had enough!

Till next time, happy days!

Francine

Want to win some blog candy?

2010-08-20T12:08:00.005+10:00

Everybody loves blog candy don't they? Well, my online friend Ingeborg is running a competition of a differnt sort this month - she's giving away the chance for some blog candy just for linking to her site. Here's what she's giving away:

The pack contains:
An acrylic block for your clear stamps
Chipboard Shapes 'Turn, turn, turn, a time for love' (Buzz & Bloom)
Chipboard Shapes 'Pointers: Swirly Snails' (22 pieces, Buzz & Bloom)
Chipboard 'Corner Flourishes' (Buzz & Bloom)
Glue Sticker Sheet for flocking or glitter 'Dingbats' (Around the Block)
Flowers 'Blossoms' (Making Memories)
Clear Stamps 'Emotion' (Heidi Swapp)
Flowers 2 packs: green and pink (KaiserCraft)
Pearls green (KaiserCraft)
Rubons 'Baby' (KaiserCraft)
Rubons 'Months' (KaiserCraft)
Rubons 'Urban Threads' (TLC)
Clear Stamps 'Doodled Frames' (KaiserCraft)
Clear Stamps 'Christian' (Scripture by Design)

What a fabulous prize! And Ingeborg is always so lovely that even though she lives in Europe she opens her competitions to people all over the world!

The other parts of the competition are
1. you need to become a follower of her site, which I can do now since she created a way to follow her other than through facebook (which I'm not on - so thanks for adding that functionality Ingeborg!);
2. post a picture of the blog candy on your blog and add a link to her blog on yours;
3. leave a comment on her blog with your link and an idea for next month's competition. My idea is to create a layout with at least 5 photos on it, at least one of which must be 4"x6"/10cm x 15cm or bigger.

So why not join in the fun - go check out her blog here. Hopefully you'll join her for next month's competition too (whatever that may be - the winner of this blog candy will determine that!). You can get to her blog from the link on my sidebar at anytime.

I haven't had any time for scrapping lately and there are several competitions I want to enter with one due today, so I better get to it!

Till next time, happy days!

Francine

His Brain is too big!

2010-07-23T15:49:00.005+10:00

The latest Apron Strings My Croppy Summer Assignment is to make a layout based on a sketch by Gloria Stengel. Here's my take.

And here's the sketch for inspiration.

I wasn't going to enter this challenge because I didn't really have time, but since it was quite a simple sketch, and Logan had made the funniest comment yesterday, I wanted to capture that. Earlier this month we'd gone shopping to find something to buy with an unspent gift card from his birthday. As he still had $5 left on it, I said go look in the clothing, but I doubt you'll find anything under $5. Well, he came back to me a few minutes later and showed me this hat that had been reduced to $1.86!!! It looked good on him, so he bought it. As I'd taken a photo of him in it, it seemed to make sense to use it for the layout. The biggest problem was finding an embellishment that wasn't flowers because I knew he wouldn't like that. Oh well, he ended up with flowers anyway in the end!

The paper is from Stampin Up! (Tea Party), the title used various lettering (Dymo tape, Kaisercraft Fozz Felt, Adornit tiny etched natural, and some rub ons that I had in my stash from the Dollar store when we were living in Canada). The flowers are by Petaloo (Flora doodles, tie-dyed gypsies), and the flourishes were made using Design adhesives (French Swirl) from Kaszazz, which were covered in flocking fibre I purchased at the Canberra Quilt and Craft Fair last August and hadn't yet used. As it was the first time I used this I wasn't quite sure how well it would work. I realise that I rubbed more in on parts of the adhesive than others, but I'll know how to use it better next time.

The journalling reads:
Logan: Mum, I woke up early this morning because I had a bloody nose. Should I take my sheets off the bed?
Me: Yes you better so we can wash them.

A little later …

Logan: Mum a big piece of ear wax fell out of my ear too.
Kyaa: Eewww, that’s disgusting. Why did Logan feel he HAD to share that with me?
Me: Well, maybe the two are related since your ears and nose are connected.
Logan: Yes, it must be my brain getting too big for my head and it’s forcing all the blood and wax out.

Hmmm … so much for our modest son!
Logan assures me he was joking, but sometimes he does have a big head (pun intended!). It was certainly a funny comment, although maybe you had to be there.

Finally, here are some closeups.

Oh yes! Logan is not happy that there are flowers on the paper and in the embellishments!

Till next time - happy days!

Francine

Cairns Layout and Card

2010-07-19T00:43:00.009+10:00

Phew - I can't believe it! I finished another Apron Strings challenge. The "My Croppy Summer Assignment #11" was to use a sketch from Nuts About Sketches, AND then create a card from the scraps BUT besides the paper, incorporate an element from the layout onto the card. I found this one quite challenging since I don't really like making cards, and I couldn't find any pictures to use that were in a portrait orientation. So, I turned the sketch 90 degrees and did it that way instead. So, this is what I came up with.

Here's the sketch.

I took a while finding paper that I liked in my stash but finally settled on this striped paper from TLC, and some craft cardstock. The other paper and cardstock are all scraps. I found this fibre in my stash, and for the stitching I used some metallic thread I won from my LSS a while back. I pierced the holes for the stitching using a Mijemoo stitching guide first. After I stitched the pattern I decided to add the seed beads so went over it all again, adding a bead onto each stitch. The title was made with some Kaisercraft Felt alpha stickers for the main title, and a Dymo label made with my Caption Maker for the subtitle.

So, what about the card you ask? Here it is.

I did cut another piece of cardstock for the base, but then used an off cut of the striped paper from the layout. I decided to incorporate the stitching, beads and Dymo label from the layout onto the card. I did use a different flourish than on the layout, and I used sequins and beads, but only on the ends of each stitching line. I also changed the colour of the Dymo tape from black to light blue. It's quite simple, but I like how this card turned out, and I have a birthday coming up soon that I need a card for too!

Well, today may bring my period of prolific scrapbooking (for me at least) to an end as the kids are back at school tomorrow, and I need to go back to work. There is always less time when I'm working, but I do need to fit in my Project 12 layout which is due by the 20th, so I'll be working on that tomorrow night, and probably Tuesday afternoon as well! I have the photos printed already, and the sketch, so I just need to pick the papers and embellishments and put it all together! If I don't get it finished before the deadline, it is unlikely that I'll finish it at all. While I don't enter these challenges for the prizes, the deadlines are always very handy. I seem to work best under pressure. It was the same at school, and I often produce my best work when I have little time to complete something. Anyway, I guess only time will tell.

So, till next time - happy days!

Francine

Preschool letters

2010-07-17T19:21:00.005+10:00

The Apron Strings "My Croppy Summer Assignment #10" was a Use-Your-Stash challenge. As Lori said "All those lovely sheets of stickers with the Q's, V's and W's left, numbers, symbols and the one E left because you needed two. . .today use those scraps of alphas on your layout in a non-title, non-journaling way".

Well, this one didn't jump out at me as to how to manage that, but then that's what a challenge is all about isn't it? About the only thing I knew for sure was that it had to be school related. So, I went to bed and thought on it. Then it came to me! (I must admit I get some of my best inspiration either lying in bed, or in the shower!) So, next step was to find the photos, paper and letters. I have always loved these two photos from preschool of my kids (they were so cute back then, not that they aren't now, but teenagers just don't photograph the same as little children!). I found that I had some sticker letters in small, and the same letters in large as well, so that worked perfectly for my idea. The paper from Provo Craft had been in my stash for more than a year, so I just needed to find some cardstock, which has also been in my stash for a very long time! Except for the brads on the magnifying glasses' handles, there is no lumpy bumpy stuff on this layout, but I like it. Logan's response, after "That's me!" was "Cool Mum!". He liked the magnifying glass idea, and I love how it turned out too! Hope you like it as well.

Till next time - happy days!

Francine

Half Map Sketch

2010-07-17T18:41:00.007+10:00

The Apron Strings "My Croppy Summer Assignment #9" was to use a PageMap Half Map, to create a layout.
In Lori's words: use it alone, mirror-image it to get a 12x12 size, turn it 90 degrees or use half and create the other half yourself.

What half map you ask? This one.

As you can see, hopefuly(!), I turned the sketch 90 degrees to the right. I used two 4"x6" photos rather than the smaller size and then added a top half to the page. I think it turned out ok, although I'm not completely in love with it. I had a lot of trouble choosing the embellishments, and that took me longer than any other part of putting this page together.

The papers are from Stampin Up! (Haiku), the embellishments on the left are Tim Holtz (Nature) grungeboard painted with Twinkling H2Os (my new favourite), plus punched daisies, some sticker photo corners and little green flowers from my stash. The butterfly is a piece left over from a Kaisercraft Felt border that I used on a 90cm long canvas a couple of years ago. The two prima type flowers are from Kaisercraft too, and are also painted with Twinkling H2Os.

The photos were taken at Waiotapu Thermal Park, in Rotorua, New Zealand. Seeing all the thermal activity was very interesting. The top picture shows the kids in front of the Champagne Pool, where the thermal activity produces little bubbles in water just like in a bottle of champagne. You can't touch it though or you'd burn yourself. Much of the vegetation is covered in orange and yellow from the sulphur gases. If you ever get to New Zealand, it's well worth the trip.

Till next time - happy days!

Francine

My Croppy Summer Assignment #7

2010-07-12T13:36:00.007+10:00

Well, I don't believe it but I've actually finished all this week's challenges on the Apron Strings blog! My Croppy Summer Assignment #7 is to select one of your first layouts and use something on it to inspire a new layout. The first scrapbooking layouts that I ever made were my wedding photos. In hindsight that was probably a silly thing to do since I taught myself to scrapbook and never took a class, so maybe I should have started with something less precious. However, when I look at those layouts now, I wouldn't change a thing, even though my style has changed some now. Though, maybe my style hasn't changed that much because, the original layout I chose, and the one I made today are still quite similar in style! Here is my original layout.

I was inspired by the rows of photos across the page, and the different colour cardstock through the centre. This is what I came up with today.

I used the green cardstock with the rust coloured edge to replicate a mini golf course hole. I put some brads in to represent the balls, and used a toothpick as a stick to support the 'flag'. Since the course was all about pirates and there was lots of netting around, I used a piece of an old onion bag to tie together the pictures. I scanned the score card and printed it smaller and in booklet form so I could write the journalling on top. I also scanned the logo from the scorecard and mounted it on foam tape to represent an obstacle on the course. The title used flocked chipboard fonts from Forever in Time. All in all, while the layout is still simple in style, I think it turned out well!

Till next time - happy days!

Francine

Apron Strings Summer challenge #8

2010-07-12T00:40:00.009+10:00

My Croppy Summer assignment #8 over at the Apron Strings blog comes from Elizabeth Kartchner's "52 More Scrapbooking Challenges": Use Media to inspire your next layout; books, CD's, DVD's, movies. . .

I found this article in a magazine I was reading and while I like the title, I didn't really notice that till later. What immediately caught my eye was the grid pattern of the photos and the way the words overlapped the photos on the right side. So that is what I mimicked. Here's my layout.

(Sorry about the picture quality - it's night here so there was no natural light!)This layout came together quickly other than the time it took to resize all the photos. I used a scrap of paper (Basic Grey, I think) on white cardstock. The title is made up of letters from ki Memories icicles, Been There Done That (rub ons), and Heidi Swapp ghost alphabet. The embellishment in the top corner is from a2zscraplets. I painted it with Twinkling H2Os. The photos come from our trip to the Amazon in 2007.

Well, I've run out of steam and need to go to bed, so unless I get up early (highly unlikely seeing as I'm a night owl!) I don't think I'll get to assignment #7. I guess only the morning will tell.

Till next time - happy days.

Francine

My Croppy Summer Assignment #6

2010-07-11T17:25:00.010+10:00

I decided to do the Apron Strings "My Croppy Summer Assignment #6" as well. I'm not sure if I'll get the other two assignments for this week done as well, so this will have to suffice for now! The challenge was to use the given sketch. I love Page Maps sketches, so this was relatively easy. The hardest part was deciding which photograph to use, since I usually scrap multiple photos rather than just one. (OK, OK, so my last post was a layout of a single photo too :-) I didn't say I always scrap multiple photos!)

Once I decided to use a photograph of my grandparent's house the rest just kind of came together quite quickly. I used a piece of DCWV cardstock, and patterned papers from the Brocade Background Stampin Up! designer series paper. The ribbons and gold brads came from my stash, as did the Cherish embellishment (I think I bought that from the dollar store when we were living in Canada). The hat pin is from CK (and is much greener than it appears to be in the picture), and the chipboard flower is by Porta Craft, and painted with Twinkling H2Os. I punched the centre flowers fom the patterned paper with my Sullivan's daisy punches. I used DMC floss to stitch around the circle, and made the tag with a scrap of kraft coloured cardstock. Since I had too much journalling for the tag, I made it as a fold out booklet/tag and created a kind of sleeve to slide it into on the layout.
The title is simply a photograph of the street sign of the street where they lived.

I think the whole thing turned out very well. What do you think? Now I just need to decide if I've got time to do 2 more layouts before the challenge cut off time!

Till next time - happy days!

Francine