Ingvild Bolme's "Mountain of Prima" giveaway!!

Good morning all!

I hope you have had a lovely weekend.  It was a beautiful winter weekend here in Brisbane, cool and windy but the sun was out and it was beautiful going for a walk in the morning sun on Sunday.

I have spent my morning catching up on blogs I follow and found this awesome giveaway from Ingvild Bolme.  The giveaway is to celebrate her new blog design and I must say, very lovely!  Why not check it out at http://www.ingvildbolme.com/ and you too could be in the running to win this "Mountain of Prima"!! There's a full list of what is up for grabs on Ingvild's blog and there are some EXCELLENT goodies.

I absolutely love her tools that she created with Prima, the Ingvild Bolme Comfort Craft Tools - distressing tool and craft knife.  They have been on my wish list for new tools ever since I got to try them.

I had the pleasure of meeting Ingvild when she was out here last summer and participated in a class she held at one of the local scrapbooking stores in my area.  She is so lovely and does amazing work (check out some of her work in the side bar of her blog). The tips she gave me and ideas on mapping your page were so helpful and I use these tips everytime I scrapbook!

Until next time,

Happy crafting!

Carmel :-)

"Drive" Scrap it with a Song

Morning!

Yes, two posts in one day, I know, its becoming a habit at the end of the month! haha!!

This page is for Scrap it with a Song Blog Challenge and DT call.  To see all the details and other wonderful entries, please click here.  I have gained inspiration from the second song of the month, "Drive" by Incubus.  I really like this song.  It is one of my favourites.  As much as I wanted to use the song for the true meaning, about facing fears in your life, I decided to go with a page about cars, more specifically, about Tim's obsession with Holdens.

I really like this page.  It started with two, less than great quality photos and turned into something I am proud of.

I have used Kaisercraft "Licorice" cardstock and the new "Check In" papers, as well as My Mind's Eye paper.  True to my usual style, I have distressed and inked around the edges on my papers, and inked around the photos instead of matting.  The cobweb looking stuff is actually a ribbon.  I believe it is made by Green Tara.  I found this at my local scrapbooking shop and it comes in lots of colours.  Its GREAT!  The tricky part is sticking it to your page without the DS tape showing through!

The photos were taken in Melbourne on our Road Trip in 2010 and I have avoided scrapbooking them due to the lower quality, one being through glass and the other, such a long view shot. I decided that I needed to keep the picture of Tim in the original 6x4in and not crop down too much so you could see where we were, at the Holden Head Office. I did cut off some of the clutter on the sides and a little off the bottom to try to make it a little more focussed on Tim.  I still wasn't happy with this so, searching around for inspiration, I discovered the rhinestone circle border in the bottom of my bling box and found this to really draw your eye to Tim in the photo.

The epoxy logo was something I stole out of Tim's draw! haha!  For those who don't know, it is the logo for the Holden Racing Team.  I thought it would fit in perfectly with the photos, and after Tim saw it on my page, he didn't mind that I had taken it.....well not too much anyway haha!

I love flowers. I believe I have mentioned this once or twice (or a million) times before. I like using them on boy pages as well, my friend says we are "manning" them up with flowers. haha!! I have used Kaiser craft and Prima paper blooms and I made the black one out of the flat Kaiser craft paper flowers by folding them in half and sticking them together because I didnt have any black paper blooms! I also like the white blooms (sorry, designer unknown), I dont think the picture shows it very well, but I have sprayed them with Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist in "Bronze".  It is very light and just gives it a nice sparkle.  The green leaves are Green Tara (I think!).  I have used red satin and black/gold satin ribbons in my flower cluster.

I used journalling strips as I didnt want a big block in the space between the photos.  I wanted to be able to still see the papers.  I typed my journalling and printed this onto the My Mind's Eye paper.  Can I suggest that when you try this, print a couple of trials first before printing on your "real" paper, it will save having to scrounge around trying to find a new piece if there is a mistake.  Yes, I am speaking from experience. haha!

For my title, I wanted to use the RW Laser Cut "Boys and their Toys".  I inked it in black ink and then used Alison Ellis Design Embossing Powder in "Firecracker Spark" on the words Boys and Toys to highlight them.

I hope you like my page!

Until next time Happy Crafting!

Carmel :-)

Ps.  I just noticed my U key is playing up, so please forgive any typos that spell check hasn't picked up! haha!

"Heroes" Scrap it with a Song Challenge

Morning everyone!

Today is the first day of sunshine in about 2 weeks and I took the opportunity to finally take pictures of my layouts for the Scrap it with a Song Challenges.  This month there is a Design Team call up, and I have decided to give myself a shot at this.  With one of my goals for this year to be working towards being on a Design Team, this is the perfect opportunity to try!

I really enjoy the challenges on Scrap it with a Song.  Each week there is a new song for inspiration, you dont have to do a scrapbook page, it could be a card or off the page item, and you can enter as many times as many times in the month that you like!

This month there are 4 songs, but for this page, I gained inspiration from "Heroes" by David Bowie.  To see all the details and the other wonderful entries, please click here. 

My hero is my Mum.  I wanted to do a page dedicated to how much she means to me and I hope I have done just that.

I found this great photo of my Mum at her 50th Birthday and decided to go with a bit of a distressed layout.  Flowers and ribbons and layers... I love it!

I started with a base of DCWV cardstock and sprayed it with Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist in Patina.  I also took the sprayer off and flicked a few droplets on the page.  I recently got one of the new background stamps from Kaisercraft, "Cherish".  I stamped this is Versa Ink so it would sit at the bottom, under my papers.  I didn't want to cover all this up too much, so used my 6 inch paper pad of "Sweet Nothings" by Kaisercraft and found pages that would work well.  I like scrunching and distressing my papers with my distressiing tool and inking edges.  Inking around the edges of your papers in the same colour will help to bring them together. I've fussy cut around the flowers and butterflies on the paper so that they would overlap my photo.  In the top right corner, I've pleated some of the left over papers and placed pearls from Couture creations over the top.

In the paper pad, they have sheets of borders and journal blocks, etc that match perfectly with the papers.  I used the scalloped edge border over pleated sheer ribbon at the bottom of my photo and ran my pink ribbon over the top with a bow.  I got these ribbons from my local scrapbook shop.

I used a branch of leaves and buds from Petaloo and glued to it, flowers from Kaisercraft, Prima and these cute flowers that remind me of Cherry Blossoms (but I have no idea who makes them, SORRY!).  I just love flowers, you will be hard pressed finding a page of mine without flowers, even my "boy" pages have flowers!  The little hummingbird beside my title is also Kaisercraft. 

I used Dark Room Door and Prima alphas for my title.  I inked my Dark Room Door alphas with Versa Ink (Pinecone) and when I put my brown Prima letters next to it, they seemed the wrong colour so I coloured them with my E49 Copic pen to match them a bit better.

As usual, I left my journalling till last and didn't leave much room for it!  My journalling was more of a letter to my mum and I wanted it to be personal, so I created a hidden journal under the butterfly using a manilla tag and one of the journal blocks from the paper pad. I've taken a picture of this (above), please excuse my hand in the picture.

I hope you like my page!

Until next time, happy crafting!

Carmel :-)

Kaisercraft Saturday Sketches/Scrap it with a song

Hello again,

Here's my entry for the Kaisercraft Saturday Sketches May #2 and also for Scrap it with a Song "I will always love you" by Whitney Houston.



Here's the sketch we were working with this week.  To see the entry requirements, etc for Kaisercraft Saturday Sketches, please click here.  To see the entry requirements, etc for Scrap it with a Song, please click here.

And here's my interpretation of the sketch....

I just love this picture of my niece Ruth.  She was so sweet when we visited her family this day.

After looking at the sketch, I wanted it to be nice and open, not too much fuss to draw attention to how sweet the photo is.  I went looking through my stash of Kaisercraft papers and found a really old range called "Mumma Bushka".  I think I have had these papers in my stash since I started scrapbooking!! haha!!  I thought the colours worked really well with the photo and before I knew it I was piecing my page together quite nicely. 

I love the Kaisercraft wooden button flowers and I treaded them with some DMC thread before adhering to my page.  I used the blank chipboards letters and inked them to match my page before putting dimensional magic over the top to give a nice glossy "popped out" look.  The little black letters I found right in the bottom of my letters box and unfortunately I have no idea where they are from, sorry!

I decided to flip the sketch because of my picture, I wanted Ruth to be looking off the page, rather than at my embelishments, if this makes sense.  The other thing I have started doing lately is not only inking around my papers to "soften" them, but also dotting around the edges to give a sort of border.  I really like the effect this gives.

We have all heard the song "I Will Always Love You" by Whitney Houston about a million times and I think we all know the words off by heart.  I was very tempted to scrap a page of my sweet Hubby, but I decided to have a look at the lyrics, and when I read the Bridge, I thought it would be PERFECT for this page to wish happiness and love to this little girl.

I hope you like my page and until next time, Happy Crafting!

Carmel :-)

Kaisercraft Saturday Sketch Challenge May #1

Afternoon fellow crafties!

I have been a busy lady over the last couple of weeks getting a few challenges completed and I am ready to show off the finished product!

This first entry today is for the Kaisercraft Saturday Sketch Challenge May #1.

 This is the sketch we had to use.  To see all the information about their Saturday Sketch Challenges, please click here.

I have to admit, it took me ALL MONTH to figure out what I was going to do with this challenge.  I was stumped with all the pieces on the left hand side, but it was actually yesterday that I was sitting there and thought, Carmel, its not MEANT to be EXACTLY the same!  Then the creative juices were well and truly flowing and finished the page this morning!

And here's my interpretation of the sketch...

I need to apologise outright about the photography today.  It is a cold wet (almost) winter's day here and the light is AWFUL. HAHA.

I used the papers from "Great Southern Land" as I felt they really fitted my photos from a camping trip to Fraser Island over the Australia Day Holidays this year.  I've attached a close up of where I used kitchen twine and an Australian Flag toothpick as embelishments.

I hope you like my page and until next time, Happy Crafting!

Carmel :-)

Queensland Scrapbooking Retreat - Kilcoy May 2012 Debrief

Good morning!

I have just returned from the May 2012 Queensland Scrapbooking Retreat at Kilcoy.  I have had the best long weekend!  I had so much fun scrapbooking and giggling and generally having a good time.

I was very industrious over the weekend completing 12 pages and 1 memo box challenge.  I have attached some snaps of my creations below.

Until next time, happy crafting!

Carmel :-)

 



Scrap it with a Song - Spring Fever

Hello again

Sorry this is going to be another quick post to get this in for the April Challenge at the Scrap it with a Song blog.  To see all the other entries and the entry requirements, please click here.

For this entry, I gained inspiration from the song "Spring Fever" by Elvis Presley.

Materials Used:
Papers/Cardstock - Kaisercraft, DCWV
Embelishments - Green Tara flowers; Prima flowers; Kaisercraft flowers & stems, wooden flower & bird, alpha stickers; American Craft Thickers; shipping tag.

I hope you like my page :-)

Until next time, happy crafting!
Carmel

Scrap it with a Song - 59th Street Bridge Song (feeling groovy)

Morning!

It has been a busy month with Crafting and I have been very slack in the posting of all my creations.

To make up for it I have 2 posts this morning to show you my entries for the Scrap it with a Song Challenge for April, with all the songs relating to Spring.  Pop over to their blog and check out the entry requirements and all the wonderful creations by clicking here.

Its hard to have the Spring feeling when it is the start of Autumn here in Australia, but it worked out in the end.

For my first page I used the "59th Street Bridge Song (feeling groovy)" by Simon & Garfunkel.

Materials Used:
Kaisercraft papers, cardstock, ribbon, lace and bling flourish; Prima flowers, American Craft Thickers lettering.

I hope you like my page.

Until next time, happy crafting!
Carmel :-)

"Nothing Compares To You" - Scrap it with a Song challenge

Good afternoon!

I have been a busy lady in my scrapping room this week and have done a few pages now, including this one for a blog challenge I have recently found, Scrap it With a Song.  This month they have dedicated to Irish artists, being St Paddy's day and all, and I have gained inspiration from the song "Nothing Compares To You" by Sinead O'Connor in week 2.  You can see all the other song choices and entrants on their blog here.

Tim and I went to a friend's 30th birthday which was a 1930's theme.  This photo was taken just before we left.  He always looks so handsome in a suit!

Materials Used 
The paper I used is the "After Five Collection" by Kaiser Craft.  I also used their new cardstock range for this project.  I do like their new cardstock, its comparable to any of the other cardstock brands out there and its a little cheaper to purchase at your local scrapbooking store than Bazzill.  For the title I used American Craft Thickers and Crafty Stickers letters.  The swirls and hearts are Crafty Stickers also.  I felt that the "white space" in the top right corner was a little too much, so I grabbed a flourish from my chipboard box, to use as a mask, and sprayed Glimmer mist lightly over the area.  I don't think it shows very well in the picture though sorry!

The pearls, bling and brads are Kaiser Craft.  Now to my flowers.  There are a couple of paper flowers (Kaiser craft I think!), some ribbon roses I picked up from my local Spotlight, and that lovely branch of flowers I think might be Petaloo??

I hope you like my page!



Until next time, happy crafting!

Carmel

Fancy That March Challenge

Hello there!

I know its been awhile since I posted, but rest assured I have been busy in my craft room.  I will post pictures in my next blog.

The purpose of today's blog is to show off my page I have created for the Fancy That Scrapbooking March Sketch Challenge.  Take a look at their blog and website.

This is my first go at a Scrapbooking challenge in quite sometime.  I have been really into cards of late and felt I needed to get my Scrapbooking Mojo back, so a challenge was just the ticket.

Please forgive my dodgy photography and the "stunning" pink background.

Materials Used:

Cardstock: DCWV

Paper: Echo Park - Victoria Gardens, Basic Grey - Porceline

Embelishments: Prima and Kaiser Craft flowers, Kaiser Craft ribbon and bling, American Craft Thickers letters, Webster's Pages journal card, lace and leaves (source unknown).

Thanks for stopping by and checking out my blog :-)

Until next time, Happy Crafting

Carmel

Copic Oz "Be Challenged"

Good afternoon!

Twice in one week!  I know, I am as surprised as you are!  Being off work at the moment has its advantages... you have time to think, and you have time to scrapbook :-)

Well in this case its a card, and I have to be super quick in posting this blog because my very inquisitive husband is due home from work soon and this card is actually for him for his birthday next week, as well as the Copic Oz Challenge for this month, "Be Challenged".  You can see all the details and other entries here.

With Tim's birthday in mind, I created this card with a Burlesque girl stamp from the Kanban Crafts range that I picked up at the Brisbane Paper Craft Festival recently.

I fell in love with the Kaisercraft collection "Velvet Ensemble" when it came out last year, and thought it would be perfect for this card.  I often use the 6 1/2 inch paper pads from Kaisercraft as they are so easy to make cards with and I dont have to cut into a 12 inch piece of paper for a piece that is 2 cm thick.

Blue-green (or teal if you must) and Black papers and colouring my Burlesque diva with the BG colours, finishing off with bling, black lace, silver bow, feathers and a birthday banner.

On the inside, I used black paper with a strip of the black flocked paper from the front and cut out a microphone from one of the pages in the paperpad.  there is also some little blue-green rhinestones on the bottom right and top left corners of the panel where I will write the message.

 

Materials Used:
Copics - E000, BG11, BG13, BG15, BG18, C01, C03, C05, C07, C09, clear spica
Stamp - Kanban Crafts "Moulin Divas", stamped with Memento ink on Express-it blending cardCardstock - Fundamentals, DCWV
Paper - Kaisercraft "Velvet Ensemble"
Embellishments - black feathers and Blue-green leaves (from the $2 shop!), paper flowers (Kaisercraft, Prima), rhinestones and pearls (Kaisercraft), Black lace (Kaisercraft), silver ribbon (in a bow), a silver charm and a hand made hat pin.

I hope you like my card and lets hope Tim likes it too!


Until next time, happy crafting!

Carmel

TOMIC Challenge #39

Good evening!

It has been a busy start to the year for Tim and I, so I will apologise now for the lack of posts.

Despite the hussle bussle, I have still been in my craft room, creating up many a storm (and judging by the mess in there at the moment, it may well have been a cyclone! haha).

Now down to business, my entry for the TOMIC challenge.  It's Tilda's birthday and so for Challenge #39, we had to make a birthday card, in true Birthday Princess style, using the sketch supplied by Tina. 

You can see the full details and all the other entries here. 

Here is my interpretation and entry for the challenge.

I just love this Tilda stamp, a sweet little angel.  Even though this is stamp is from the Merry Little Christmas Collection, she is still versatile.  With Tilda's Birthday in mind, I wanted a sweet and pink theme.  For a new challenge in this card, I used my new Nesting dies to cut the scalloped shape and oval around Tilda.  I felt that the next size up was WAY too big, so to allow enough room for Tilda, I cut around her foot and let it "hang" outside the oval.  I must say, I am really impressed with myself!

Materials used:
Stamp - "Sitting Angel Tilda" Merry Little Christmas Collection, "Happy Birthday"
Ink/Colour - Memento ink, Coloured with Copics
Cardstock - Kaisercraft and Bazzil
Paper - DCWV, Kaisercraft
Embellishments - Paper doily, ribbon and paper flowers, lace, ribbon, flat back pearls, butterfly charm

I picked up this butterfly charm yesterday and thought it would be PERFECT on this card, adds to the "sweet" theme.


I hope you have enjoyed my card and until next time...

Happy crafting!

Carmel