Bali layouts

Beware! Long post coming up…

Last year I was lucky to get a layout a month completed. So far this year I've completed five, including one double - and all since our return from Bali on January 17th! Boy, am I on a roll. So here are three of the Bali related layouts.

I turned the sketch 90o to the right

The first is my entry for Sketches With A Twist. The challenge this month is to use the sketch provided as well as texture paste. I bought some texture paste late last year wanting to try it so this was the nudge I needed to actually do it.

Texture paste

Washi tape strips

acrylic heart behind the flower with sequins and bead centre

I had some washi tape on my desk that I hadn't yet used either so that was what prompted me to choose the colours for the layout.  First, I used a template from The Crafter's Workshop (Tile Texture TCW237) to put the texture paste through. While I was waiting for it to dry I covered a scrap piece of white paper with lines of washi tape to make the arrow. Once the paste was dry I put it all together. I added some patterned papers from my stash (TLC and Basic Grey), the Bo Bunny flowers, some white sequin leaves and a clear flower bead for the centre, an acetate heart (Breezy/TLC) behind the flower, more washi tape strips, a white brad and a white clip, some white foam letter stickers and Kaisercraft mini letters for the title and it was done! Cool - I love it and it's now the title page for my Bali album. And, surprise, surprise, there's not a single die cut on it - I never once pulled out my Big Shot!!

This is my double page layout. I love the panoramic photos. It helps that the rice fields and terraces in Bali are so photogenic (can you say that about a landscape?). I didn't even use a sketch for this one, and only two die cuts that I had already cut out that were in my stash! Embellishments are all bits and pieces from my stash as well so I have no idea where they're from, but I love how it all came together. I think this is one of my favourite layouts.

Beside the Tirta Empul layout (which you can read about here), my other Bali layout is one I made with the February Wrapped in Paper monthly challenge kit. I certainly wasn't enthusiastic about the papers in the kit and wasn't sure what photos to use them with. As you have to use at least a little bit of each one, in the end I decided to use the words (My Girl) for the title, which meant it had to be about Kyaa. It became My Bali Girl though and I included photos of Kyaa and some of the activities we tried while we were in Bali.

 

Everything on the layout is from the kit, and for once I didn't add anything to it. The papers and matching embellishments are from the Butterfly Kisses collection from Kaisercraft. The butterflies are printed on the paper and partially die cut so you can pinch the wings up. I'm not sure whether all the papers are the same, or I just happened to get a dud version, but the cuts were completely off from where the printing was. I certainly wouldn't have purchased this paper if it hadn't been in the kit. Anyway, I struggled with it a bit as to how to use it, but in the end it just kind of fell into place and I'm pleased with the result. Certainly not colours and papers I would have chosen, but I always find that it's amazing what you can come up with and how you can turn something you don't really like into a layout to be proud of. It's currently on display at Wrapped in Paper, so if you're headed that way this month I'd love it if you voted for me if you like I too.

Till next time, happy days.

Francine

17 - February White with 1 challenge

Here's my layout for February's White With One challenge to use white + pink + hearts. (Hmm, I'm not sure why there's a shadow down the bottom in the middle, it's not there IRL!)

I already had these photos printed and a sketch picked out (from the September 2012 My Creative Sketches challenge) but it hadn't gone beyond that. This seemed like the perfect way to pick the papers, despite the fact that Kyaa hates pink. I'm really pleased with how it turned out - even Kyaa didn't mind all the pink!

The pink papers are from an LSS challenge win, along with the lace. The stick on pearls and hearts were from my stash, along with the striped paper which is actually a tag from some hair clips. I die cut the title and the two little hearts from it. The silver heart was on the tag already and I liked how it looked with the die cut negative above so I just cut the narrow strip and rounded the corners from the larger tag that it was. I don't throw anything out and eventually it comes in handy like this, or at least that's what I keep telling myself when I look at all my stuff, LOL!

The dies I used were:

Cheery Lynn Heartland of America die (large)

Memory Box Serafina Heart (98278) and matching Cupid Heart (98281)

MFT Die-namics heart from Notched tag set

Cheery Lynn Mini Fanciful Flourish

Till next time, happy days!

Francine

Tirta Empul

The last Bird is the Word challenge word for a while is "Whisper". I did what I often do for these challenges and looked up quotes with the word whisper in it. I found this one from Ralph Waldo Emerson: "Let us be silent that we may hear the whispers of the gods" and thought of our visit to the Tirta Empul temple at Tampaksiring in Bali, Indonesia. Despite the rainy day the quietness of the place really struck a chord. So, I added the quote on top of on of my photos of a woman praying in the temple (font is Angelic War).

For once I made this layout without a sketch to start with! I wasn't sure how big to print the photos to begin with. So, I placed them on a 12"x12" canvas in PSE first to determine the sizes and layout, then printed them out.

The patterned papers are from Kaisercraft Old World collection (discontinued), and the kraft cardstock is from Stampin Up! I inked the edges of everything with Faded Jeans Distress Ink. Since there was a large ship in the bottom corner of the white paper, I covered it up with a doily die cut (Cheery Lynn English tea party doily) from a coordinating paper. Under the title (cut with Sizzlets Cherish dies), I punched holes in the paper using the Mijemoo Flip it brads n eyelets guide and was going to try and sew with the jute, but that was too thick, so instead I just brought the jute up through the paper at the ends and sewed it in place with floss wherever the holes were. I added some washi tape and a few brads (Kaisercraft and Making Memories [Noteworthy]) and I was done.

The only thing left to do was to add the entrance ticket. I wanted to include it on the layout, but it was too large so I resolved that problem by sliding it behind the main photo.

I like how this layout turned out and hope you do too! Please leave me some comment love to let me know what you think.

Till next time, happy days.

Francine

Frosted Designs 12 Day of Christmas Challenge

Front of birthday calendar - interchangeable months

Back of birthday calendar - pages interchangeable like the front

Frosted Designs had a 12 days of Christmas challenge with 12 different challenges to be completed by Dec 31st. I had seen two pins on Pinterest that intrigued me, of Christmas advent calendars made from an IKEA photo frame. The last time I was in Sydney I went to IKEA and bought myself a frame but that was as far as it got. This seemed like the perfect opportunity make a birthday calendar based on the advent calendar idea. With 12 months and 12 challenges it was perfect (although I did change the way the calendar worked)!

I managed to complete 10 of the 12 challenges so far and hopefully will get an opportunity to complete the other 2 as well. I have all the months except August and December completed. I used the same packs of papers from Creative Memories (Enchanted - printed papers and embossed cardstock) for the project. All the month titles were die cut out of these papers using my MFT Die-namics By the Letters cutting die.

Here are my challenge entries: 

January - Challenge #3 - use three mists, paints or inks

Along with the mini numbers collage template (TCW210s) from The Crafter's Workshop, I used three Distress inks (peeled paint, fired brick, and weathered wood) to make the background on a plain part of one of the papers, then cut out a vine from the edge of the paper to lay on top.

February - Challenge #12 - use at least 12 brads

I die cut the heart with my Cheery Lynn Large Heartland of America die (using only the small heart part), and a vine with my Fancy That Leafy Vine die. I then used a Mijemoo Flip it brads n eyelets guide to place the 24 (!) black brads for the heart shape.

March - Challenge #1 - use a bird

A friend had sent me a bird cage die, so along with the Stampin Up! two step bird punch I cut out a bird and several leaves for this month.

April - Challenge #4 - use four different patterned papers

An easy challenge! I actually used five patterned papers for this one when you include the background paper. The branch was die cut with the Memory Box Woodland branch die (not that you can see much of it anymore!), and the leaves were cut with the Fancy That Mixed Leaves die.

May - Challenge #2 - use two stamps

Using distress inks, I stamped the Stampin up! En Francais and Medallion stamps on the embossed cardstock, before adding the month title.  

June - Challenge #6 - use six strips of washi tape

This one was difficult for me. I wasn't sure how to incorporate the tape, especially as I only had a limited supply of tapes (four to be exact and two with clashing colours!). Then I remembered the Fancy That Sprockets and Gears die and the tape seemed to go with them. I laid down the six pieces of tape (three above and three below the title) and put the cogs on top, and in the end I love how this one turned out!

July - Challenge #7 - use seven sparkly snowflakes

While it rarely snows in Canberra, July is winter and many of our friends go to the snowy mountains to go skiing then, so that seemed to be the most logical month for snowflakes. I cut two larger snowflakes from white paper with the Marianne Design Creatables snowflake die, then punched the smaller ones with a Creative Memories punch. I painted the smaller flakes with moonlight Smooch and added some bling to the centre of each one. I tried to distress the edges of the page with white versamark ink, but it just seemed to soak into the cardstock so I ended up painting some streaks of the smooch onto the background to look a bit like falling snow - well that was the theory anyway!

August - not done yet - intending to use challenge 8 - use eight different brands/products on your project

September - Challenge #10 - use 10 buttons

Another easy one, and one of the first ones I completed. I simply die cut 10 flowers with my Joycrafts daisy die, then added buttons to the centre of each. Having recently been involved with cleaning up my in-law's property for sale, I 'inherited' quite a stash of buttons so had many to choose from! I added a butterfly (Cheery Lynn small exotic butterflies die) for a pop of colour.

October - Challenge #9 - use 9 pearls or sparkles

I added 9 pearls to the Marianne Design Creatables (LR0115) butterfly die cut and T in the title. 

November - Challenge #11 - use 11 banner flags

OK  so I actually have 12 banner flags on this one. I was intending to use the Fancy That Fiesta Flags for the banners on this one, but they were too large, so I had to use the MFT Die-namics Mini Pennant die instead. But then I felt the top right corner was a bit bare so I used one of the fiesta flags that I had already cut to fill it up.

December - not done yet - intending to use Challenge #5 - use five gold things.

Now all I have to do is finish the last two months and make a box to keep the other months in while one is on display. What do you think? I'd love to see your creations if you make one too...

Till next time, happy days!

Francine

You & Me

Oh my, it sure has been a while since I posted. I have been terribly busy with life in general but have managed to get my monthly LSS challenges completed, just not blogged! Anyway, today I wanted to show you my latest entry for the Ruby Rock-It sketch challenge at Page Maps.

 I do love purple and green together, so it was great that Kyaa and I were wearing purple and green and I could use the colours for this layout! I think deep purple with lime green is a divine combination. 

The sketch by Becky Fleck was so easy to follow. As it turns out I had quite a few die cuts and flowers in my stash too that were suitable so this layout came together quite quickly. The majority of items for this layout have been in my stash for quite a long time and I don't know where everything comes from. I do know this:

   

• chipboard bird is from Words or Whatever, 
• the plaid paper is from TLC,
• the green journalling tag is from Kaisercraft,
• I used the Martha Stewart butterfly punch with green paper from TLC for the mini butterflies,
• the chipboard heart at the top is from Collections Elements and coloured with a purple Sakura gel pen
• ribbon is from Costco
• green jute was just purchased the other day but I don't know the maker.

Flowers, brads, purple tag, buttons, cardstock, mauve paper, letter stickers, and purple and green heart die cuts - makers unknown.

I'm happy with the way this layout turned out, let's just hope whichever of Becky's friends judges the competition thinks so too!

Till next time, happy days!

Francine 

Grand Canyon

This month's challenge at Kraft It Up was a colour challenge to use kraft, white, black and green:

I love this combination and knew I had to scrap the photos of the Grand Canyon from our trip in July. I grabbed a double page sketch from Sketch Support (number 12) as my base. If you don't know about this website, it's fantastic, especially because they give you a printable format that includes dimensions, placement information and ideas for altering the sketch. All you need to do is click on the appropriate link on the right hand side under Printable Sketches. 

Left hand page

Right hand page

Background made with template and Distress ink

I selected some cardstock (kraft from Stampin Up!, black Bazzill and green Core'dinations), as well as some Graphic 45 scraps that I had from a workshop I'd done at my LSS. For the white I used a piece of lace from my stash and the top note die cut that I'd received from the die cut swap I participated in some months back. I used the Crafter's Workshop Tile Texture template and some Distress Ink to add the "squares" on the green cardstock, then sanded the edges back a little. I inked around the edges of the Kraft cardstock and top note die too. Since I'm a perfectionist it then took a while to measure up all the pieces and make sure that they were lined up equally on both pages. I'm sure someone else would have had it done in half the time!

I decided to print the journalling on the computer, something that I don't often do, but it meant that I could write more in the space. I do plan on doing another layout of the California Condors that we saw, and maybe the fossils too, but thought I should get the main information onto this page.

I had just recently purchased the flowers (Tyed-dyed gypsiesby Petaloo) at the Craft Show with nothing particular in mind. They were perfect for this layout. I found some other green button flowers in my embellishment stash, as well as some brads. The laser cut chipboard is from a2z scraplets. The branch die cut was made with a Memory Box die, and the little kraft cards are from Collections Elements. It was then just a matter of moving them around till I liked the design.  

I love how this layout turned out! Tell me what you think...

Till next time, happy days! 

Francine