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

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.

Day 16 - Documenting December

Last week the lovely Michelle from The Stamp Spot suggested to the DT to include some specific journalling around 14 for 2014. The idea being to include 14 items in whatever theme you wanted on day 14. Well, it's day 16 so I obviously missed the 14th, but that happens. However, I love the idea of a  year in review so I have done it today. Today has ended up being a one pager in my DD album with no photos.

The day card is a gorgeous piece of bokeh vellum from the teal kit. I added the doily, numbers and wood veneer stars from the main kit. The large star I covered with gold glitter washi.

The top card is lift up flap. The outside is kraft card with washi from the teal kit and stickers from the main kit. I added a gold foil word cut with my Silhouette.

The inside of the flap is vellum where I have written the first 12 things.

Between the vellum & the photo behind I have created a file card from white card. I have written the final 3 things on this card and then placed it backwards in the pocket - ie so it can't be seen through the vellum. There is a washi covered tab sticking out the top indicating that there could be something more in there. However, my more personal journalling is on this card so I'm not really fussed if people don't pull it out.

I really enjoyed the process of looking back over the year. I initially was worried I wouldn't have enough to write for 14 things. I ended up with 15 and could have written more. Thanks so much Michelle for the prompt :-)

Thanks for stopping by to check my DD progress. 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.

Day 3! Documenting December 2014

Day 3, Day 3,

Look below with glee

And feel all warm & fuzzy,

As we trim the Christmas tree

Ok, so I'm not much of a poet, but there's something about the tree going up & carols blaring that really brings out my Christmas spirit.  More ho, ho, ho and less bah humbug.  We did wait for my husband to be home from work but he's never overly thrilled by the whole idea and mostly will leave me to my own devices.

I'm not an especially particular person.  Mostly close enough is good enough.  I rarely push for perceived perfection.  But for some reason my Christmas tree is different.  I like a colour scheme, I like pretty, I like matching wrapping paper & I really, REALLY want it too look like I imagine.  The kids however are growing up and getting much more vocal.  Zac always wants a rainbow tree - my colour scheme stifles him!  This year Hannah was happy to go with it, as long as she could get decorations from EVERY tub! *sigh* Just not the gold & white I imagined.  I have, with great difficulty, just gone with it.  I've reluctantly {and with great strength of character} not touched the tree since.  Surprisingly, it's actually not driving me nuts. Though we shall see how that goes as the month progresses

Below is Day 3 from my December Daily.  I'm part of the Documenting December DT for The Stamp Spot and today I'm using the main & teal kits only. 

The paper for the number card was in the teal kit and it's Bo Bunny Candy Lane - Jolly collection.  I LOVE this paper so much.  I edged the doily with the gold stamp ink from the main kit and placed a teal flair on top.  I covered a wood veneer star with glitter washi tape from the teal kit and added sequins, rhinestones and the number.  

I edited my tree trimming photo on my phone and added text using the Rhonna Designs app.  Super easy way to add journalling when space is tight.  

The other side is pretty simple. I added a sequin pocket from the teal kit to the top of the picture as a flip pocket and a sticker from the main kit.

Lift the flap and there's my tree, in all its mis-matched resplendent glory. I also edited this picture on my phone and added a quote from the Rhonna Designs app. I'm really liking this picture.

For my December Daily I'm printing all my pictures at home and the tree picture is the first one that isn't on 6x4 paper.  I just couldn't (easily, right now even) work out how to get it to print 6x8 so instead it's 5x7 with a great white border.  And it printed crooked!  But again, it's about just getting it done. 

This is how the pages look in my album. It really is beginning to feel a lot like Christmas. 

Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope you're enjoying your December Daily journey too.  If you want some more inspiration please check out what Michelle is up to at The Stamp Spot  and also the rest of the fabulous DT:

Tanya Watson

Stacey-Lee Collis

Beck Holder

Melinda Sweetman

Amanda Horne 

Bernii Miller 

Beth Patfull

Kirsteen Young

Amanda Miller

Have a great day,

Layout - Rainy Days

Last week someone asked me to photograph 6 or 7 of my layouts.  And I went into panic mode.  I've been doing heaps (ok, mostly) pocket pages lately & didn't have many *great* traditional layouts.  So I did what any sane scrapbooker would do - I started creating!  Madly!  And ended up with 3 layouts I'm pretty darn happy with.

This is the first - Rainy Days are Awesome.  And yes, they pretty much are when you're a kid.

My papers of choice in this layout are Heidi Swapp - Today, Mixed Company & Dreamy.  Added in is a floral sheet from Amy Tangerine.  From this I cut a polaroid frame and also fussy cut some flowers.  For my title base I used a Project Life card.

And the pretty bits are also from a variety of sources - because that's how we roll.  Some gorgeous Heidi Swapp Today ephemera & stamp, wood veneer cloud & letter stickers from Prima, wood veneer word from Freckled Fawn.  All the other gorgeous bits are from the June D-lish Scraps Just Add Paper kit - ticket tag, yellow roses, flair, string, butterfly pin, washi tape.  And my trusty secondhand, side of the road typewriter managed the journalling strips.

And for a little bit of extra special there's pink sequins from D-lish Scraps & black Heidi Swapp colour shine splatters.

What am I loving about this page? It's a fun layout with lots of bright colours and it matches the great memory & happy faces of my kids.

Have a great day,
Gabby