March Layout - Project 12

I've been slow at getting layouts done this month. I have lots of ideas, but don't seem to be getting that far with the actual work! Anyway, I finally finished my March layout for Project 12. Here it is:

Here's the inspiration sketch. Once again it was designed by Becky Fleck of PageMaps.

I used the same papers as for the last two layouts and only added a few "extras" - the blue fibre across the top, the purple/blue ribbon and the purple border just below the photos, as well as the blue glitter letters that I used on the January layout as well. The ribbon/fibre/border all came from my stash so I don't know what brand they are.

Here's a closeup of the embellishment on the right hand page. It's mostly made from layered die cuts from the kit that the papers come from and some punches from the paper from the kit. The green swirl punches were my downfall, literally. I do my scrapbooking in the spare room. I built myself a pull down desk in the closet. The desk is attached to the wall with chain. The punch I was using was so stiff though that I pushed too hard and the whole table came down - the chain came apart on one side, and came off the screw somehow on the other! Consequently I've been scrapping on the dining room table again. I hope I'll get around to fixing my desk sometime soon.

If you want to see the pages separately and closer, just click on the photos below.


As far as what we did, March was mostly about Logan. He celebrated his birthday and had a mountain biking party with 8 of his friends. It was easy for us. The boys went off biking for half and hour or so, then came back for a snack and drink then were off again. As long as we had food and drink ready they were happy, and thankfully no one was hurt, although one boy did apparently run into a tree, but he was almost stopped anyway, so didn't get hurt. Logan also finished his last games of rebound soccer. His team finished the season in fourth spot.

Kyaa went on a school excursion to Sydney for photography class. She took lots of photos, but I didn't have any available for the layout. For the rest, the month was pretty much business as usual.

Since the month was mostly about Logan he was initially somewhat dismayed to see purple paper with flowers on it. But by the time it was finished I don't think that it was as girly as he expected. I like it. I hope you do too.

Till next time, happy days.

Francine

Sunflower

I've had this layout ready for a bit now, but haven't yet blogged about it. So, here it is!


I made this layout for my CRII monthly challenge. The challenge was to make a layout based on this sketch.

I used hardly any papers for this layout, just some Kraft and yellow cardstock and some TLC green patterned paper from a 6"x6" paper pad that I had in my stash. I also used three little dragon fly brads, and some Tim Holtz plain grungeboard alphas for the title. I coloured the alphas using bronze Versamark ink. I also inked around the sides of all the papers.

I made the flower embellishments myself. They were made from three different kaleidoscopes I made from the subject picture. I printed them off on 4"x6" (10cmx15cm) photo paper, cut them out, and then layered them on top of each other. I put them in the palm of my hand and rubbed in a circular fashion in the centre of them to make them pop up a bit. after making sure that the points were all offset, I used a small yellow brad to attach them to the page. I actually couldn't decide whether I liked the three layers or not, so one of them is just two photo kaleidoscopes on top of a yellow cardstock scalloped circle that I made with my Stampin Up! scallop circle punch. Do you know which one?

The only problem with using the scallop circle is that there are more points on my kaleidoscope than there are on the scallop circle so they don't quite line up right.

The photograph was taken on our trip to New Zealand in January. On touring around the north island we saw quite a lot of fields bounded by a row of sunflowers. The bright yellow of the flowers against the green crop, in this case corn, was just too good a photograph to turn up, so we stopped at the side of the road and I took my picture. This one was to the north of Waitomo Caves, on our way to Hamilton.

I thought I'd post a freebie for you too! If you want to make your own layered kaleidoscope embellishment, just right click on the photo and click on "Save Picture as" to save it. You can then print it at your regular print shop, or on your home printer and cut out the pieces and make this too. It's scaled to fit a 4"x6" (10x15cm) print. I'd love to see what you use it on, and how you use it so please leave me comment and/or link. If you want to see more of my kaleidoscopes you can see them on my website: www.MemoriesInKaleidoscope.com

If you've seen my previous posts about my CRII monthly challenges, you'll know that as well as the layout challenge, there is also a card challenge. This month's card sketch was this one. I went through my stamp collection and found one (from Stampin Up! 'A little Bit of Happiness' set) that was the right shape and then designed the card around that. I stamped the design with Stayzon, then coloured it in with watercolour pencils. I masked the rest of the stamp so that I could stamp just the part that said hello onto the tag, and coloured that in with the watercolour pencils as well. I added a strip of yellow cardstock and a floss bow and voila, a finished card! It was really quick and easy, and I like how it turned out.

I've just discovered that an online friend, Ingeborg, has her own competition blog! Ingeborg and I were both in the same group of consultants who used to sell TLC scrapbooking products. The group had it's own online MSN group where we would all share ideas and inspiration and help each other when someone had a question. Ingeborg also started her own online store selling scrapbooking supplies, but then she moved from Australia back to her native country, the Netherlands so stopped her business. It was a sad time as there were a large number of people who regularly "met" on her forum. But now, I've rediscovered her beautiful work on her blog. You really should have a look as she does the most wonderful layouts.

I digress however. The point was that Ingeborg also runs a monthly layout competition from her second blog, and she even has prizes! She picks the winner using a random number generator so everyone has an equal chance of winning - much fairer all around I think. So anyway, being one who likes to "kill two birds with one stone" so to speak, I entered my sunflower layout in her competition as well. Mostly it was because I only had 2 days before the end of the month and no time to make another layout. I intend to do better this month!

Well folks - I think that's it for today, other than to tell you that the kaleidoscope with the yellow scallop circle is the one at the bottom of the layout in case you were wondering. Till next time, happy days!

Glamour Photos

I'm not quite sure why, but when I saw the papers in this month's competition kit from Wrapped in Paper, I thought of these glamour photos I had taken some 16 or 17 years ago. They were taken at a time when it was all the rage to go to a photography studio where they would do your hair and makeup then take shots of you as if you were a model. I have to say that I look much better in those photos than I did in real life back then, and I looked much better then than I look now, so many years later! I guess that's what happens when you age though! Anyway, back to the layout.

Here's a photo of what was in the kit. There was a sheet of brown cardstock, a full sheet of Love Me Bella! Damsel Paperz, and three half sheets of patterned papers that I imagine are part of the Bella! Damsel Paperz range as well. There was also a pack of 'Handmade Sticker' flower stickers, lengths of two different brown ribbons and some pink ribbon, as well as some small rhinestones. I added some white 50mm Kaisercraft flowers, some pink Kaisercraft rhinestones, and some white Delish Designs flocked alphabet stickers from my stash.

Now, Here's my layout!


I started by cutting a 1 inch strip of paper from each of the papers that came in the kit. Then I cut those strips into one inch squares. I stuck them onto the cardstock in a random order across the top and bottom of the page. Then I cut pieces of the ribbons and stuck them over some of the joins between the squares. Finally I got my sewing machine out and zigzag stitched the squares and ribbons to the page. It didn't really turn out as I had envisioned as the stitch was too big, but it has grown on me. I added the photos, with the middle one put on with foam tape so it's a bit higher than the two end ones. For the rest of the embellishment I made up the flowers by punching daisies (using a Sullivans 25mm daisy punch and a matching smaller version by Carl?) out of the papers. For the all pink flowers I layered two 25mm flowers on top of each other, but offset, and then added a smaller daisy on top of that, with a rhinestone in the middle. I put the whole thing in the palm of my hand and pressed the centre in with my little finger so that the petals would stand up a bit. For the white flowers I took a Kaisercraft 50mm flower, added a 25mm punched flower, then added one of the flower stickers from the kit.


Here's some closeup views of the stitching and flower embellishments. You can click on any of the photos to see them larger.


Finally I added the title and a few of the clear rhinestones here and there, including on the middle photo to make my ring stand out! I wish the diamond in my engagement ring was really that big! Well, actually I don't as I think it would get caught on everything, but it looks good on the layout! You can see it better in this photo.

The only thing that I don't have on this layout is some journalling. This is extremely unusual for me as I normally do put some on. I think I might add something to the back, or a pull out tab under one of the photos when I get it back from the shop after the competition is over. I considered putting some on the layout, but with all the little paper squares it's just too busy to add some journalling as well. In fact I had initially used some silver glitter alphas that I had, but they just got lost on the page, so I changed that title to the white letters instead.

Well, let me know what you think of my page.

Till next time, happy days!

Project 12 - February 2010 Layout

I've had the photos for this layout for over a week, but haven't had a chance to get to this layout, so I'm pleased that I finally got it finished. This is my second layout for Project 12 at Scrapbook and Cards Today. Two down, ten to go!

This month's sketch allowed for 7 photos. I love that these sketches give me the opportunity to put lots of photos on a page. I've always felt that while single photo layouts can be absolutely beautiful works of art, that the real reason for scrapbooking is to record the events and everyday happenings of life. Of course that requires many photos and lots of journalling. These sketches allow me to do just that!

Once again I used the papers and embellishments from the scrapbooking kit that I purchased from Aldi last year. My intention is to use the same kit for all the Project 12 layouts and to keep them in the matching album. So far, so good. I'm not sure whether I will actually have enough papers, but I guess we'll see as the year goes on. The cardstock is from my TLC stash, and I also added a few buttons, some ribbon and some edging from my stash. The ribbon was left over from a competition kit but wouldn't stay stuck with the double sided tape I was using, so I sewed it to the page. That ended up being difficult as it was hard to see through the ribbon to the holes I pierced for the purpose. Both of the edgings I used were white but I coloured them with bronze Versamark ink.

During February the kids started a new school year. We had two and a half days of rain, the most we've seen in months. The grass is actually green again instead of brown and dead! There was so much rain in that period in fact that Lake Burley Griffin was so full that they opened Scrivener Dam. It proved to be quite a draw card, and like most of Canberra we too went to have a look. This month also saw the winter Olympics being held in Vancouver. We were all cheering for Canada during the ice hockey and the kids went to find the Canadian flag to have out during the game. Both kids also had lots of badges that they had traded during their Guide and Scout camps in January. They all needed to be sewn on to their camp blankets, so much of their time was spent sewing! Some were sewn on better than others, but at least I didn't have to do it, although I did help with a few of the more difficult badges.

I like how this layout turned out. I like it better than last month's.

On the left is the left hand side on its own. Just click on it if you want a closer look.



On the right is the right hand side.



I have another layout done for my LSS monthly competition, but won't post it just yet as I feel there's something wrong with it at the moment. I'm still trying to work out how to improve it.

Till next time, happy days!

CRII - Feb challenges

Well, I've had a good weekend and got more scrapping done than I have for a long time. I've finished both the layout, and the card for this month's challenge at my online group.

We had to make a layout based on a sketch from Everything-About-Scrapbooking.com this month. I took the opportunity to scrap some photos from our trip to New Zealand last month, specifically of the Government Gardens in Rotorua. The sketch was for a double page layout. This suited me fine as I usually make double pagers, although I haven't done that many lately. I didn't really stick to the sketch as I accidentally picked a portrait photo in the bunch, and I should have had all landscape photos! Still, I stuck to the main idea of the sketch and I really like how it turned out. Here it is (click on it to see it larger).



I used the "I Wish" (Christmas!) Simply Scrappin kit from Stampin Up! I used the Old Olive cardstock, cut a piece of the green patterned paper for the tops of each page, and the half circle at the bottom of the left hand page. For the "ruffle" across the middle of each page I cut the strip (4 times) from the other patterned paper. I simply folded it to look like a ruffle. I used two strips for each page. Then I sewed it onto the page.

For the ruffle around the half circle I used some Stampin Up! chocolate chip 2.5cm double stitched grosgrain ribbon. It was really easy to make into a ruffle. I just pulled the stitching on one side of the ribbon then attached it to the back of the circle with double sided tape. Some sticker embellishments from the kit finished off the circle. I was impressed that I could use a Christmas themed kit for a very non-Christmas layout.

For the titles I used some Lush rubons from Delish Designs that I won in an online crop last year. I absolutely love this script and would love to buy some more, but haven't been able to find it anywhere that I've looked so far. I then added a small border sticker from Art Stamps Australia that I bought at the craft show last year in Canberra. I always find something I like at their stall and it's always well priced too. This border has some sparkle in it, but it doesn't show in the picture. The scalloped embellishment is also from the SU! kit. I put it on with foam tape so it would be raised off the page.

As to the photos, they are (left to right and top to bottom) the gazebo, the lovely pond next to the gazebo, a kauri tree trunk (love those colours!), the Rotorua Museum that began it's life as a Bath House and Spa in 1908 (very interesting museum and worth the visit if you go to Rotorua), and L behind the Maori posts and carvings at the entrance to the park.

The second part of this month's challenge was to create a card from this sketch from Card Patterns. I didn't have any idea what colours I would use until I went through my scraps to find a piece of cardstock big enough to use as a card base. I found a piece of cardstock (from my TLC stash, I think)and then went about finding patterned papers to go with it! I'm really not sure who made them as they were all scraps. The only thing I can tell you is that I used the Friendly Flowers stamp set from Stampin Up! for the pink flowers in the middle diamond, and their Spring Solitude stamp set for the sentiment. The diamonds were put onto the card using foam tape, and then I added a button that I'd tied a bit of floss through before attaching. I like how it turned out, except that I think I should have inked the edges of the green flowered paper to make them stand out more from the background. Still, I hope whoever gets it will like it.



I hope you like my creations. Till next time. Happy days!

PageMaps Scrapdango Sketch Contest

Over at PageMaps blog they are having a sketch contest with fabulous prizes from Scrapdango. The sketch was for an 8.5 x 11 page, but I only do 12x12 so I altered it to fit the bigger size. Here's my take on it. (Note you can click on any photos on the page and see them larger.)


The papers and embellishments I used were from my local scrapbooking store (Wrapped in Paper)'s monthly layout competition kit. The kit contained a sheet of Bazzill cardstock, one full sheet and three half sheets of patterned paper from SEI, glitter cardstock strips from UPIKIT, 4 flowers (I don't know who from) and a sheet of alphas from Raspberry, called Princess. This is what the kit looked like before I used it.

I also added a chipboard flower from Bella Chipz, Versamark inks (bark, orchid and fresh green), a rhinestone brad, some light green floss, a pink flower and some ribbon from my stash. I finally fixed the needle on my tiny sewing machine and added some stitching through the ribbon, and on the top right corner of the layout.

I used the back side of the multi coloured striped paper to cover the chipboard flower and inked the edge of the stem part with the green ink, and inked the flower part with the orchid ink. Then I added a pink flower from my stash, one of the green flowers provided and kept it all together with the rhinestone brad. I added a few x stitches over the stem.

For the journalling block I used the green stripes from the multicoloured striped paper.

The photos were taken from the train that runs between Cairns and Kuranda, in far north Queensland. G and I took the Skyrail (gondola) up to Kuranda. After a lovely day in Kuranda we came back down the mountain in the train. About half way down the mountain the train goeas across this bridge right in front of these falls. They're not the most spectacular falls I've ever seen, but still pretty nice. The most well known photos of the Kuranda Scenic Railway are always of the train on the bridge in front of the falls, in fact it's part of their logo. That would have been a more spectacular photo, but not possible to take from the train :)!!

Till next time, happy days!

January Project 12 Layout

Here is my first layout for Project 12, a challenge being run over at Scrapbook and Cards today. Every month Becky Fleck of PageMaps provides a sketch and you then make a layout using the sketch with photos of that month. This is January's sketch:

Initially I didn't like how this layout was progressing, but once it was finished, I think it turned out well.

We had a very busy start to the year. The kids each went to camp - K to an international Girl Guides camp in Geelong, Victoria, and L to the Scout Jamboree at Cataract Park, in Appin, NSW. G and I took the opportunity to have our first holiday together, without children, since our honeymoon. We took off to Cairns in Far North Queensland. We only had 4 full days but we packed in the activities. We visited the town of Kuranda, went swimming on the reef at Green Island, visited the rainforest at Cape Tribulation and went white water rafting.

On the children's return we went to New Zealand for 12 days. We stayed in the North Island, visiting the area around the Bay of Islands, took a tour to the tip of New Zealand at Cape Reinga, and visited the thermal pools etc at Rotorua. We also took a boat through the glow worm caves of Waitomo. All in all it was a great month!

Well, back to my layout. I used the Swirls and Flowers template (TCW77) from The Crafters Workshop to draw the swirls around the flowers. I then pierced holes along the lines and used floss to stitch the lines on. The flowers are Tye-Dye Gypsies from Flora Doodles by Petaloo. The rhinestones next to the stitching are from Kaisercraft.

For the edging under the top left photo and the bottom right photo I used one of my border punches that I haven't used in ages. It's Aztec - Basic borders punch from EK Success. I used it with the Link 2 Link guide. (They obviously don't make these anymore as I couldn't find them on the EK Success website to put a link in - shows how long I've had it then I guess!)I then rolled the middle triangle over my paper piercer. The paper is relatively thin though so doesn't stay in place that well. Maybe someone should make some "hair spray" for paper!

For the "Busy" title I used some glitter stickers I got on sale. Being Canadian I'm disappointed to say that these stickers from Forever in Time (MultiCraft Imports), a Canadian company, are not good stickers. I had to put glue on them to make them stick to the paper. But, once I did that they're really quite nice. I added a flower and some more rhinestones and voila!

The paper I used is from a scrapbooking kit I bought from Aldi last year. I didn't save the packaging so I don't know who made it. It came with an album, patterned papers, alphabet stickers, die cut frames, tags, alphas, and embellishments, as well as borders and four layered embellishments. I used some blue TLC paper from my stash for the journalling sheet, and cardstock from my stash as well. Don't know where that came from either! I used the alpha stickers from the kit for the January sub-title. I didn't want to stick them directly on to the paper though so put them on foam tape so they would be raised off the page. I think it makes them classier than they really are.

And finally for the photos. On the left hand page, the photos are all from New Zealand. Clockwise from left they are: my family atop the lookout on Urupukapuka Island in the Bay of Islands, L&K at Whangarei harbour, and a REALLY New Zealand scene, a giant Kiwi with the NZ flag painted on it, with a sheep underneath. This photo was taken at Otorohanga, a Kiwiana town between Waitomo Caves and Hamilton. Here's the photo so you can see it properly - just click on it for a larger view!
On the right hand page the photos are of G and I on the beach at Cape Tribulation, K at ACE Girl Guide camp with some of her tent mates, and L getting ready to go to Jamboree. (I blurred the faces of the other kids since I don't know whether their parents would be happy to have them posted online.)

Till next time, happy days!