Project Life 2015 ::: Week 13

Hello Tuesday!

The sun is shining and I'm feeling great. The breeze is still really fresh however I'm churning through a mountain of washing and getting that crossed off my list.

This year I challenged myself to do weekly project life as opposed to monthly or event based which I have done previously. And how's this going for me you ask. Well... really not to bad. No, I'm not currently scrapping week 24 however I have my photos printed and in pages up to week 17. And some of those weeks have even been finished *gasp*. You'll see some haphazard posts of those weeks soon.

Today though I'm celebrating my completed Week 13 layout. Woohoo!!! Go me!!! I used the May Cupcake Kit from A Piece of Cake Designs and the colours worked perfectly, just as I knew they would.

Left hand side

Script writing playing with the Higgins black ink from the kit. As well as die cuts, sequins, washi and Chickandiddy striped alphas from the kit.

I created the "Hello" card by machine stitching patterned papers, punching out the Hello die cut, highlighting words with a white pen and finishing off with a brad.

I had a larger story to document this week so pulled out the trusty old typewriter for some strip journalling

My other journalling solution this week is writing directly on photos then adding stickers, sequins and die cuts. 

I loved the Bella Boulevard 'Just add colour' stickers from the kit and added colour with distress markers.

Right hand side

  

Capturing the story on a two 3x4 cards with a fun title using the Bella Boulevard stickers and Chickandiddy striped alphas from the kit. I also used Marquee thickers from the kit extras section.

The kit came with 12 6x6 patterned papers from the 365 Chickandiddy crafts collection. This wood panelling one perfectly matched the wood floor in Zac's karate photo. I added another sticker from Bella Boulevard as well as some twine and one of the Doodlebug Designs doilies. 

Thanks so much for stopping by

SBM Masters Entry 2014

So last year I threw my hat into the ring for the Scrapbooking Memories magazine Masters competition. Did I expect to win? No, not really. It's my first time of trying out for the team & mostly the experience was about just making myself do it. Frankly, I'm fabulous at deferring, putting off, finding excuses and any other kind of procrastination. So this was about pushing all that aside & just getting it done. And I did!

To enter I needed to submit 4 pieces of work.  The first a layout with a 5x7 photo. I chose a great photo of Zac just after he caught his first spanish mackeral. The fish is big and he was just so excited.

 

The second project had a journalling focus. There were lots of things I could have gone with, some may well have ended up novels :-) In the end, I chose to document about Hannah @ 4.

The third project was a layout using an unusual item either to create the layout, as an embellishment or any other way you imagined. I chose to do a layout about me! Yep, it's a pretty rare occurrence. And added a favourite quote. My unusual item was springs from clothes pegs which I painted & sprayed.

 

The final project was to create the cover of an art journal. I will have to add pictures of that another time as I created the art journal for one of my 13 year old nieces and have since given it to her. I will however take photos next time I see her.

And how did I go with my entry? Well, I didn't win - as I well expected. And let me just say the girls who did - WOW. Their stuff is amazing!

I did however get an Honourable Mention and I'm pretty dang excited about that. Check out my next post for all the details.

Kaisercraft Design Team 2015 Entry

I am super excited to apply for the Kaisercraft Design Team for 2015/2016. This is the first time I'm applying for this great DT and I'm wondering why it's taken me so long. Especially as I love the Kaisercraft collections so much. 

My first project is a layout using the Shine Bright collection.

I love this range so much, it's so bright and fun. That yellow is just gorgeous. I added some pieces from the matching collectables to give the layout cohesiveness and created a tag from the Canary paper, embossing with the Sentiments folder. The tag is used as a base for my title. Background stamping and misting provide added texture and interest.

Kaisercraft products: papers - Buttercup, Mango, Canary, Sunbeam; sticker sheet, Shine Bright stamp set, Shine Bright collectables, Sentiments embossing folder

I created my off the page project using the Multipurpose Box with the Close Up collection. 

I painted all the pieces black and, once assembled, I created a collage on each side from pieces of the Develop paper. I added extra decoration to each side with fussy cut strips from the Film paper, collectables and stickers. 

The front is covered with Flash paper and fussy cut elements from the Capture paper. I have also added lots of pieces from the collectables and finished off with some matching pearls. 

The box comes with 6 dividers which I have covered with papers from the range. Each divider tab has a medley of collectables and stickers. 

I really love how this project turned out and will be using the box for sorting & storing my photos and memorabilia ready for my pocket page scrapbooking. 

Kaisercraft products: papers - Develop, Capture, Film; Close Up collectables, Close Up stickers, pearls

My final project is a mixed media canvas in 12x12 size. 

This canvas started out as a greyscale succulent picture which used to hang in our old house about 8 years ago. However it doesn't fit at all with our current house so it was just perfect to be repurposed. 

I started with gesso, then dabbed on a mint spray & white paint mix. On top of that is lots of layers of inking with bubble wrap & corrugated cardboard, stamping and stencils with texture paste and paints. 

When everything was dry I added the top, pretty, layer. This final layer is made up of flowers, doily, fussy cut flowers & butterflies from the All that Glitters range and All that Glitters collectables. The quote is a combination of stamped word strips and letter stickers. I coloured some of the white flowers with mint mist to match the background. 

I just love how this canvas finished up. 

Kaisercraft products: paper Dazzle - ; All that Glitters collectables, paint, doily, flowers, All that Glitters stamp, texture stamp Film Edges, texture paste

Thanks so much for stopping by to check out my entry. 

 

LO: Love Fun

For me, layouts come about for lots of different reasons. This layout is all about capturing Hannah's pure excitement on the flying fox for the FIRST time. 

The fishing playground (nick named by the kids because part of the play equipment is a boat) has undergone a huge revamp and a double flying fox has been added. Zac saw it and was instantly beside himself. He jumped onto the platform & pretty much didn't play on anything else.

Hannah, on the other hand, had never been on the flying fox before and she was too scared to try. Instead I pushed her a THOUSAND times on the tyre swing and then, when my arms were just too sore to go on, she wore out the slide.

Eventually, I was able to coax her over to the flying fox. And after what seemed like forever, but only really a few minutes, she decided to give it a go. Zac & I helped her get on the seat and then gently let her go. Off she went. Hair flying behind her and a grin bigger than the sun. LOVED IT is an understatement. She had so much fun and was so proud of herself for being brave in giving it a go.

And for all of that, she need her own layout.  

For this layout I have used lots from Amy Tangerine Stitched collection. I started with the Continued paper for the base, swiping some gesso on the left side just so my photo wouldn't be overwhelmed by all that gorgeous script. I highlighted a few of the script words with watercolour paints and then added some gelato colour to the gesso.

Next I layered pieces from the other patterned papers in the collection I had - map of my heart, moments and jumble stitch - and also the fabulous die cuts. I cut some *I think 10* circles from these papers, scrunched them up for some added texture and then machine stitched them to my layout. I really wanted my stitching to be a little free & easy, however... I can be more than a little particular about straightness & evenness. So as you can imagine, haphazard stitching is a real challenge for me. But I gave it a go. 7 circles were added to the layers under the photo and 3 were added to the bottom right corner of the layout.

Time to finish it up. I attached a block from the jumble stitch paper to a kraft tag for my journalling. And then it was the pretty bits... Freckled Fawn arrow paperclip & wood veneer, Amy Tangerine foam word, MME enamel dot from the Cut & Paste collection and more of the great Amy Tangerine die cuts.

Products: Paper - Amy Tangerine Stitched; Die cuts - Amy Tangerine; paper clip & wood veneer - Freckled Fawn; thickers - Amy Tangerine; enamel dot - My Mind's Eye; Tim Holtz mini attacher, machine stitching, gesso, watercolour paints, Faber-Castell Gelatos

Documenting December - It's a Wrap!!!

I was pretty darn excited to finish my December Daily album last month. Between prepping for the album, scrapping each day as it happened and blogging about it, I was done. Love December, lurve Christmas & loved my first December Daily album, but I was pretty over looking at it come mid-January.

And while things are still fairly fresh in my mind, I wanted to wrap up my album with a few notes to myself so that when November (kidding, really October) hits this year & I start to get all gung ho again about DD I can have a reference point. Mostly a reminder not to go too overboard, as per usual.

Last year I was incredibly fortunate to be selected as a Documenting December team member for The Stamp Spot. Michelle from The Stamp Spot is fabulously talented and also a wonderful person. It was such a pleasure working with her great kits. For my album I used the main kit which was gold, white & kraft.  I also purchased the teal & red add-on kits. They were all divine & the quality was outstanding.

For the album I used a Snap! 6x8 with a variety of pocket protectors. My trusty sewing machine also helped to alter the protectors too.

Okay, notes...

Will I do December Daily again?

Yes, absolutely. I loved it, however there will be some changes.

Album size...
I'm happy to go with a 6x8 again with the pocket protectors. And that's a bonus because I have so many protectors left over! *bazinga*

More of...

The stories & traditions. I got so caught up in the daily aspect that lots of the little (but oh so important) things were missed - or I just didn't have the space.
One story/photo a day. Make them work for my album and spread it over the month.

Less of...
Everything!!!! Hahaha. Mostly kidding. As you can see from the photo, my album is BURSTING at the seams. So this year there will be less photos, less of the daily - that stuff is for my PL which will be up to date **don't ask me how I'm doing on that!!**.  Less of succumbing to my own crazy notions that I need to document it THAT day.

Will my album be less full this year?
Unlikely!!! But the really important stuff will be in there.

Major note to self... Read this post again in October!!!

Documenting December: Days 18-25

This is it! I'm FINALLY blogging the last of my December Daily album. I finished about a month ago but haven't managed to get around to putting it up on the blog... mainly due to that little thing called life! But today I.AM.DOING.IT! 

And I'm doing 8 days in one post so WARNING - it's going to be photo heavy - especially since we had 2 Christmas days in that time. 

A quick refresher - I was a part of the fabulous DT Documenting December for The Stamp Spot. Michelle created some gorgeous kits for this project and I used the main (gold, kraft & white) kit and also purchased the teal and red add on kits. 

And for those that have stumbled across this post and are wondering what the heck is December Daily - well, it's a concept created by Ali Edwards with the idea being to create a special, usually mini, album dedicated to capturing the spirit of your Christmas - including traditions, special events and other memories. Be sure to check out Ali's blog for more info.

Some of my favourite pages are:

Day 19: This page protector started as 2 4x4 pockets and 1 8x2 pocket. Out came my trusty sewing machine to alter the 8x2 pocket into 4 2x2 slots which I filled with sparkly goodness from the kits.  I also machine stitched on the number card to create a triangle shaker pocket - totally inspired by Michelle's kits.

It's Day 20 & Santa has been! What??!!! I hear you ask.  Well, my husband does FIFO and headed to work on the 22nd so a special request was sent to Santa and he very, very kindly agreed to visit us early. Yay!

The balsa wood in the top pocket is from the main kit. I used a tree die cut before gold embossing the outline, adding a star sticker & also drawing gold stars with the gel pen from the kit. 

Day 20 was really, really busy in my album and there was just no pocket space for journalling - even after I added a Heidi Swapp mini memory album for  more photos. So I solved that problem by writing on an acetate sheet with my trusty black sharpie. It took a couple of days for the ink to dry but was worth the wait.

Day 23 - our church held Christmas carols at the local winery. I know... how good is that? Right! I just love this picture of Hannah with her friend singing merrily. Hannah's job was to jingle the bells & Stephanie's was to turn the pages on the singing book - because she's at school already & can read, of course!

In the top left pocket, the foil came as part of the main kit. Again I used the tree die cut and then a star embossing folder. The 'joy' is from Heidi Swapp was cut on my Silhouette from gold foil paper. 

Day 25 - the standard day is here. No, Santa didn't visit twice, much to the kids disappointment. He did however swing past to collect our elf and also to leave a lovely letter for the kids. However, the day was not without presents. We celebrate lunch & dinner at my sister's and there were kids, gifts & food galore.

I used my trusty Silhouette again to cut the 25 from gold foil card. I created a flip card to record my journalling.

The finish... Being my first year of December Daily I wasn't quite sure just how to finish up my album. Day 25 is my last day and the last pocket is a reminder of everyone's favourite memory for December. They are all different and interestingly enough, neither of the kids actually listed presents.

This final card uses washi, stickers & a flair from the main & teal kits. I also added a gold foil heart die cut.

Now for the other pages:

  

  

Thanks so much for stopping by. If you did a DD album for 2014 I hope you too have been able to finish it.

Cheers,

Day 17 - Documenting December

We had an overnight visit from a gorgeous friend & her 2 kids as part of their Christmas break.  It was so great to catch up. The kids played mostly well and loved their giant sleepover in the lounge. The grown ups talked and laughed until the wee hours and drank more than a few wines. And it was genuinely great fun. However, today I'm a little less than enthused to achieve much at all. And today, more than ever, I'm grateful for those foundation pages I created in November.

I'm part of the fantabulous DT Documenting December for The Stamp Spot and am using the main, teal & red kits for my December Daily album. Partly due to my lack of motivation but also by my bursting at the seam album, Day 17 is a single page. And it just happens to match nicely in my album with Day 16.

Both of the cards are from the main kit - Teresa Collins Tinsel & Co range. The day card has numbers, sequins and wood veneer from the main kit. I gold embossed the star wood veneer. I also added washi from the Freckled Fawn very merry embellishments kit to the card background.

The journalling card has a Kellie Stamps on the bottom with watercolour over the top. The stamps at the top are from Heidi Swapp. I did some script writing with my Wink of Stella gold pen and added just a couple of random heart stamps.  It's pretty simple today.

In my album the pages look like:

Thanks so much for stopping by.  For more inspiration, check out Michelle from The Stamp Spot and also the other awesome DT members:

Stacey-Lee Collis

Beck Holder

Melinda Sweetman

Amanda Horne 

Bernii Miller 

Beth Patfull

Kirsteen Young

Amanda Miller

Have a fabulous day.