My Mum

It feels like forever since I have had the time to complete a LO so when I come across the ScrapFIT WWU #20 I though it would be a great challenge, especially because the challenge was DISTRESSING and CHIPBOARD.  For me distressing is quite difficult because I love clean straight lines, so needless to say when I sat down to do this LO I struggled for the first hour before I finally gave up fighting myself and just went with the flow, and it turned out super cute.

 

while your checking out ScrapFIT you should check out my BFFs blog, she was ScrapFits WWU #19 winner.

Birthday Card

Well I have really been making a lot of cards lately but I haven't realy had a lot of time so completing a whole Scrapbook LO seems like an unachievable goal, and the cards have been great to give me my craft fix when I don't have a lot of time.  So yet again here is another of my latest cards, It has faux Stitching that I absolutely love because it really make everything pop and I made it as a part of the ScrapFIT WWU #19.

I made this card for my Brothers Girlfriends 21st and I must say I was inspired by a card my BFF made.  I hope she loves it as much as I do. 

ScrapFIT Workout #55

Well I have been very busy getting my christmas cards and Tags made for the silly season and wanted to share them as a part of the ScrapFIT Workout #55.  

And now for a close up, first up my Christmas Cards.  I loved making these, perhaps because I love Christmas.  

And now the Gift Tags

Making the Christmas Cards and Tags was a great way to get me into the Christmas Sprit,  and for once I am very organised and already sent my cards.  I do have 1 more christmas card that I made for my BFF and I just love love love this card but unfortunately she reads my blog and I haven't given it to her yet so that one will have to go up at some other time. 

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas.....

Birthday Card

This is just a quick post to show you the birthday card I made for my Nephew's 4th Birthday.  Sorry its only short but i promise to have a few more things to share over the weekend.  My nephew loves monkeys (he loves transformers more, but I'm only so good), so I know he will love this card.  

I used the Create a Critter Cricut cartridge along with some papers from the Kaiser Craft Little Toot paper stack (I am in love with this paper stack) and a few scrap papers I had.

Another Freaking Scrappy Challenge

Well I have to admit I have been kind of slack on the posts lately but so much has been happening,  I have been swamped doing birthday cards (it seams like everyone i know has had a birthday in the last month) and i started on my christmas tags and cards so promise to post a few projects over the next couple of weeks.  

The first one I want to share is the LO I completed for the Another Freaking Scrappy Challenge blog, I stumbled across this blog when looking through blog after blog after blog and the challenge was perfect.  I had been wanting to do a LO of my favourite book for a long time and this challenge fit the criteria perfectly.  So here it is, the book that I could  not live without reading, and who am I kidding the book I wish I lived in LOL.  

I finally got to use a few embellies that i have had for sometime and never found the right spot for them so that made me extremely happy.

MIA

Well I know I have been MIA for the last few weeks but it has been a crazy month.  I took some time and out went on my first overseas holiday to the USA with my husband and some friends.  It was simply AMAZING, and needless to say I will have plenty of LOs using photos from my holiday posted soon enough.  But for now I just wanted to share a card I made for my Grandmother to say Thank you.  I used some bits and pieces I picked up from a craft shop while in the USA and a butterfly I had made months ago but never used.  

It was kinda funny because when I started this card I had a whole other idea in mind and was getting really frustrated because I wanted to used a really pretty piece of card stock I just loved, but I could not get it to work.  Funnily enough when I gave up on using the piece of card I liked and just played around with some other card stock I had it all came together surprisingly quickly.  

Lesson learnt today:  "if something is not working, try something else before I turn into the Hulk."

Scrap Therapy

I had a great time doing the blind scrap for Scrap Therapy with my BFF yesterday.  I have had this photo of my nephew for quite some time and just love it, so I was wrapped when the LO all came together.  I must give credit to my BFF you pulled me out of my creative black hole when I was feeling a little stumped and could not get the LO work the way I wanted it to.  The sloshes of mud on the LO were her idea and I think they are what made it all work for me.

Holiday Layout

I just love this LO, its one my my favorites. I had started the LO as a part of the Scrap Therapy Blind Scrap but as I got going I started to take another direction with the LO so I never submitted it.

The butterflies I made myself using one of my cricut cartridges and I just love them. Another thing I love about the LO is the distressed border I put around the page. I by mistake took a chunk out of a piece card stock and though what the hell, i'll just go with it and then realized it would make a great border around a page, and I was right. It really give page a little extra pop.

This is also the first LO I have used more than 1 photo and it was really fun. I think I will have to play with using multiple photos more often form now on.

Happy Birthday to you.....

Well it was my husbands Birthday the other day and I wanted to be a little sneaky and make him a few surprises.  Im not sure about everyone else but when you live in the same house as someone it is very difficult to spend hours making something without them seeing it.  So with the help of my BFF I spent the evening at her house making a Birthday card.

It turned out so cute, I even ended up making a tag to match.   Then there was the cupcake surprise, I had to sneak into my craft room while distracting my hubby with all the Crime Channel he could handle watching, to make some cupcake toppers with the logo of his favorite Footy Team.

And then again with the help of my BFF we managed to get some very Blue cupcakes made for a surprise Birthday cake.

My darling husband was very surprised and let me tell you, the cupcakes were to die for.  

I'm Back!

Well it has been quite some time since I have made any posts, but life has been a little crazy lately. Hopefully over the next week I can get a few posts up and share a few of my projects with you.

The first one I wanted to share with you is a LO I started for a challenge blog, unfortunately I didn't get it finished in time to post.

I used my new set of Lawn Fawn stamps "Admit One" in this LO to do the row of tickets at the bottom. I just love the stamps in this set.

I also want to share with you the pin board that I made.  I wanted something to put my test items and ideas on, so I made this little pin board in Black and White (to match with my little scrap area of course).  

It really comes in handy, if I make something but am not sure where to use it, I can just stick it on the pin board to use another day.  

Purple Pumpkin August Giveaway

Hay guys, you need to check out Purple Pumpkin, they really have some super cute stuff and are having a give away.

Happy Birthday Card

Well today I attended my BFFs beautiful daughters Pre Birthday Party and made her the cutest No. 2 Birthday card.

I had such a great time making this, the balloons are from Lawn Fawns new stamp set Admit One which I stamped onto colored card stock and then cut out and I made the balloon string by wrapping a piece of paper around the end of a pant brush.  To get the balloon string to hold its shape I misted it with a little water and then hit it with a heat gun for a few seconds.  It kept it's shape so well I even had to pull the curl out of it a little.  

The card turned out so colorful and cute I just love it to death and wanted to share it with you all.

Crafty Sketches July Challenge

I loved the sketch design for the Crafty Sketches July Challenge and had really been wanting to try a Black and White LO, so here it is.....

While I will not be in any sort of a hurry to do another Black and White LO, I absolutely love it and even got to try out watermarking with my embossing power.   I cannot wait for next months challenge.

Blind Scrap

Well my Friend Nat had been telling me about a Blind Scrap that she found on Scrap Therapy, at first I had no idea what she was talking about but once she had explained it to me a few times I was actually really excited to give it a go.  For those of you who are like me and had never heard if this before, basically you are given a list of items you will need to complete a LO and then on the indicated day/time you go to the forum and are given a set of instructions one by one on how to put all the bits and bobs together to create you LO.  You are then given a few days to finish it all off before they open up the Forum for you to upload you LO and check out how everyone else interpreted the instructions.  

It really was a lot of fun, I got together with my friend Nat on the night and we both had a ball putting together our very different designs.  The Scrap Therapy Forum runs the Blind Scrap once a month so check it out, I promise you'll at least have a laugh.

Once Upon A ...Sketch June 1st Challenge

I am really have a great time entering my LOs in challenge Blogs.  I find that when left up to my own devices I will ponder, and plod and could speed weeks playing around with the same LO, but with the challenges you have a time limit so I kind of force myself to make a decision and stick to it.

So here is my latest entry for Once Upon A ...Sketch, I loved doing this LO because as much as my sister can drive me crazy (and has done since birth) she is still my beautiful little Sis for life.

Some parts of the LO have been blurred for Privacy

I hope you like my LO as much as I enjoyed making it.  Please take a look at the other wonderful LO on the Once Upon A ...Sketch June 1st Challenge Blog.

Bird is the Word - Life/Live/Living Challenge

I love this new LO of my Niece because of all the bright colors I got to use.  I also had my first attempt a t using Embossing Power, and I would have to say that experience was interesting at the very least.  But after a few minor disasters I found my grove.

So I am entering this LO in the Bird is the word Life/Live/Living Challenge, please take a look at their site and see all the fantastic LO.

Explore

Well it has been a crazy couple of weeks and I was so happy to finally have the time to get stuck into a new LO.   I had a wonderfully time doing this LO of my adorable Nephew and I hope you like it.

Paint Paint Paint!

I have only been scraping for around 8 months and the thing I enjoy more than anything is learning new techniques, so when I seen some beautiful layouts using paint to create your own backgrounds I couldn't help myself and gave it a try.   I am now a big fan of using paints in my layouts  and am also finding it very liberating to go wild with paint and ink to make my layouts a little less structured.  I am still finding my way and figuring out what works best for me so I hope you like my new layout because I had so much fun making it.

Once Upon A... Sketch April 1st Challenge

Well this is the first time I have done a sketch challenge and to be honest I had a great time doing it, so a big thanks to Once Upon a... Sketch.

I chose to do this challenge mostly because of the criteria to have handwritten journalling on the page, this was the hardest part of the challenge but I am really happy I gave it a go.  

There are many more great designs at Once Upon A... Sketch April 1st Challenge so please take a look at them all.  

The Puppies...

Introducing the Puppies.... as you can see they are not puppies at all anymore, but the Beagles are still my little babies and I really enjoyed working on a full page layout of them both.  I wanted to keep both layouts kind of similar and have them displayed together.  I was very happy with the end product even though I spent an excessive amount of time on the Journaling and to be honest I struggled using pink for the first time.

This was really my first attempt at journaling but once I was done it made me a little less scared of putting words on the page, now to attempt  Journaling in my own handwriting. 

Once Upon A... Sketch

Well my BFF has just found this new blog Once Upon A... Sketch, and its great!  It's all about getting people to use Journaling in their layout and for me this is a bit of a struggle so I am looking forward to participating in a challenge or two, take a look using the link above.

The first challenge on Once Upon A... Sketch is to get the word out their so check out the 

blog and follow the steps for your chance to win. 

Fantabulous Cricut: Challenge Me Monday #52

Well this is my first challenge entry and I must say I am really enjoying seeing what everyone comes up with.  The card I have made is for my sisters 25th Birthday so I hope she likes it and I hope you all like it too.

Its Cricut Time

Well it has been a busy week for me, to start with I was very excited to recieve my haul from Custom Crops ( www.customcrops.com ).  As you can see from my photo below the best part of my haul was the Cricut Expression.  I also got a gypsy, a few cartridges, as well as a few other bits and pieces.  For anyone who knows what the Cricut is, I am sure you can understand my excitement when it was delivered.  For anyone who hasn't seen them in action yet I highly recommend you take a look at what they can do on youtube.

The reason I wanted to share this haul with you is because it came from my favorite scrapbooking shop Custom Crops,  this online store is a US based shop that delivers to Australia.  You can get some amazing bargains but just be careful of the exchange rate.  The Cricut Expression at the time I brought it cost me around AU$270.00 (inc. postage) and I have seen these machines retail on various australian website form AU$400-$700.  For anyone who has a Cuttlebug you can get Spellbinders Nestabilities from US$18 +poastage (usualy only a few dollars) from this website, these retail in Australia for around $38+, so as you can see if you are willing to wait the 5-20 days for delivery (I have never had to wait 20 days) it is well worth the wait.

I also wanted to share with you a few cards I have made.  Making cards has become a welcome surprise for me because when I started this new venture I was really only interested in Scrapbooking, but somehow along the way I have picked up an interest in making my own cards,  below are my first few attempts.  The valentines day card was given to my husband and the others were made for my husband to give to some family as a thank you.  I also just finished making a Birthday card for my Sister last night, but I will have to wait until after her Birthday to share that one (it's my favorite).

I hope you enjoyed my little projects and for anyone who is interested in the Custom Crops wesite you can find the link on the left in my Links section.

Movin' on up!!!

After completing my Mini Album and sending it off to my husband, I figured the only way was up, but the thought of tackling a full 12x12 layout was beyond me.  After working with layouts that had limited space to fill up, coming up ideas to fill a page (I struggle with blank space on a page) was somewhat of a challenge but a challenge I was ready to accept.  I picked out 2 photos that I really wanted to work with because they were of me and my husband in uniform during our time in the Royal Australian Navy.   The photo of me I wanted to make a little girly because drab grey coveralls don't really make a girl feel good,  and after working hard to get over my fear of blank space I found a happy medium between feminine and displaying truth behind the photo.

When I started working on the layout of my husbands photo I learnt my first lesson in making a LO flow, I was really struggling to feel happy with what I had done with it so I showed my work in progress to my BFF who said she didn't feel like it was flowing, and she was 100% right.  I went back over the LO and started to connect all the bits and pieces and then it really all started to come together.  Its amazing how a little criticism can really help.

They may my favorite LOs but I am really enjoying all the new things I am learning (thank you YouTube), and tomorrow I am off to the Sydney Craft Show so lets hope I pick up a tip or two there as well.