Birds of Prey (show)

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

Soccer Fun

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

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

Spiders!

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

Apron Strings Summer challenge #8

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