A2Z Scraplets May Challenge

Hello again

Today I am sharing with you my entry for the A2Z Scraplets May Challenge.  This month on the blog, they have a colour palette challenge of blue, yellow, black and white.  Why not head over the blog and check all the other entries out by clicking here.

Here is my take on the challenge...

 

 

This photo was taken at my niece, Charlotte's birthday party.  We all thought it was a great laugh when Mum and Aaron were using Allen's snakes lollies as moustaches!



I have used papers from Bo Bunny and Fancy Pants, as well as a flocked acetate, also by Fancy Pants.  I love to distress and ink my papers, I like the rough look matched with pretty flowers, the right amount of grunge with pretty (maybe a reflection on the person I am too!).  I decided to wet and scrunch my blue paper and then quickly dry off with my heat  gun.





The "branches" are A2Z Scraplets and I used my "Artsy" stamp by Kaisercraft with Memento ink to break up the natural colour of the scraplets.  I have used crocheted flowers and leaves by Petaloo and the others are by Green Tara.  My title are a combination of Kaisercraft mini alphas and some glitter letters that I found at my LSS.  I also used some white pearl bling strips by Kaisercraft.

I hope you like my page!




Until next time, happy crafting!

Carmel xxoo

Princess Jenna

Hello again

Today I am sharing with you a page I have created about my beautiful girl, Jenna.

 

I was doing my usual blog hopping at the start of the month and found two challenges that I would love to attempt...

• A2Z Scraplets April Challenge "You brighten up my day" - check it out here.
• Pagemaps' My Minds Eye Sketch Challenge - check it out here.  The sketch we have to use is below.

I found this picture in my stash that I had printed a while ago and never got around to scrapbooking.  My beautiful Samoyed, Jenna, is so photogenic and never shys away from the camera!  Being such a close up photo and that she is a white dog (well most of the time she's white, haha!), I decided that a pink and cream colour scheme would be best.

I used Kaisercraft cardstock as my base and sprayed it with my "Cranberry Zing"Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist.  I have used a beautiful range of papers that I got from my LSS, but unfortunately they don't have the company name on the back!  Using the Accents Cricut cartridge, I cut out my "cloud" shapes in various sizes to fit on my page.  Once I had cut out the large pink patterned paper for my photo mat, I paper saved some of the cardstock so I could make my journal block.  I have inked around all my papers in "pinecone" versa ink.

I have also used a heart shaped doily that I picked up at the craft show recently.  I started layering and grouping my shapes around the central photo mat until I was happy with the end  result.  I have used a large heart cluster rub-on, by Kaisercraft, and my flower cluster over the glimmer mist, instead of the grid in the sketch.    I am a big fan of flowers and flower clusters.  This time I have used flowers from Prima and Green Tara.  The ribbon in my cluster is a simple satin ribbon I got from my last trip to Spotlight. 

Other embellishments used are heart stickers, Scrap FX paw print and Prima lettering.

 

I hope you like my page and have inspired you to try one of the April Challenges!

 

Until next time, Happy crafting!

 

Carmel xxoo

Gone Fishing

Hello again

Today I am sharing with you my page I have created for 2 blog challenges:

• A2Z Scraplets - March challenge, "Summer" theme (please click here to see all the details and other fabulous entries)
• Once Upon A ...Sketch - March Challenge, use the sketch and theme "Its the Weekend"(please click here to see all the details and other fabulous entries).

The sketch I used from the Once Upon A ...Sketch blog is this...

 

And this is what I came up with ... and I apologise it is on its side, I have tried a dozen times to fix it, but it keeps loading sideways!

 

 



 

I love this picture of Tim.  He has that goofy/cheeky smile that makes my heart melt and he looks like such a dag in my floppy floral hat!

 



I went to a retreat recently and used texture past for the first time on a page.  So I thought I would give it a go with my page this time and I am fairly happy with how it turned out.  I used my paint brush and blotted it across the top and down the middle of my page at a sort of diagonal.  I think the key is to not over think it and go with the flow.  I am in no way an expert on this, but I was happy with my first attempt!The picture doesn't do it much justice, but the ink and glimmer mists look different with the texture paste.

I have also discovered muslin/gauze lately and have used it on this page to give it more of a beach/rough look.

Materials used:
Paper/cardstock - Cre8tiv cardstock; Webster's Pages, Kaiser Craft and an unknown source paper
Flowers - Manor House; Green Tara; Prima Marketing Co.
Embellishments - Kaiser Craft bling; A2Z Scraplet title; gauze; string; journal strips (unknown source); Kaiser craft stamp, versa colour ink; Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist; Jo Sonja's Texture Paste; notebook page

I wanted to keep with the yellow of the sand and Tim's Shirt for the cardstock and use the blues of the ocean, sky and that daggy hat in my papers and reflect that into my flowers.  I know, its a boy page about fishing and I still use flowers... I can't help it!

The little journal strips that I found, they were right in the bottom of the drawer, obviously fallen off a die cut page that had been floating around in there for awhile.  They set up my Summer theme and of course, us Queenslanders love to get to the beach and relax on a nice hot Summer's day, so it was a perfect weekend! 
I wanted to keep my thoughts about the day for just me and have written about them on a notebook page that I ripped out of the book and tucked it under my photo.

I hope you like my page and feel inspired to give yourself a challenge.  Head on over to the blogs via the links above and give it a try!

Until next time, happy crafting!

Carmel xxoo



"Lady in Red" layout - SIWAS

Back again!

This time I am showing you my layout I have created for the 2nd song for the month over at Scrap it With a Song, "Lady in Red" by Chris De Burgh.  To see all the details and all the other fabulous creations, please click here.

 

I really love this song by Chris De Burgh. It was hard to choose which part to use, but eventually chose this picture and the chorus line "it's just you and me" stuck out.

 

This picture was taken on New Years Eve 2012 before our celebrations to ring in 2013.  Our friend Colin Worley took this photo (and many more of my family) on the evening.  He's on Facebook (PhotoCol Photograhy) and is based in the Redcliffe area (Queensland, Australia).

 

 

Materials Used:

Paper/Cardstock - kaisercraft; bazzill

embellishments - kaisercraft paper blossums and pearl flourish; green tara paper blossums; leaves and pearl stamin (unknown); "eyelash" ribbon; muslin; black lace; A2Z Scraplets; black embossing powder; mini letter stickers (unknown);

 

I really like the "After Five" collection by Kaisercraft with this photo.  I used one of the "journal block" pages and cut a couple of the blocks out to piece together my page.

I used black lace under one of my layers and punched a piece of paper with my scallop border punch.  I like layering my papers and embellishments to give my layout dimension.

With my title, I mixed the fonts/mediums used. I used some mini letter stickers that I have had hiding in the bottom of my drawer for AGES for the first part and the "You and Me" is an A2Z Scraplet that I inked with black Versaink and embossed with black embossing powder.

 

I hope you like my page.

 

Until next time, happy crafting!

 

Carmel xxoo

 



"Purple Rain" Sweetheart

Hello again

I dont know about everyone else, but I am so glad that we are having a rest from all this rain that has been hammering South East Queensland!  Seeing a beautiful sunshine day outside my bedroom window this morning instantly lightened my mood.

This is the first of 2 entries today as I have been busy over last weekend doing some pages for the Scrap it With a Song blog.  This first entry is for the first song of the month, "Purple Rain" by Prince (or is it the artist formerly known as Prince?).  Check out the details and all the other entries for this month here.

 

 

I love this picture of Emilia.  It really captures her fun and sweet personality, and that smile melts my heart!

 

 

 For this page, I decided to use the song's title as inspiration.  I used Purple as my main colour pallette and added some black and white cardstock to make it stand out.

I am not usually one to use purple on my layouts, so trying to find some in my stash was a little difficult but I am very happy with the end result.




I really like the black vine stickers I have used on this layout.  I got them at my LSS and use them ALOT!  The sheet of stickers is all vines and there are lots on there and different lengths, etc so they are versatile for cards and layouts.  The metal butterfly I picked up and Spotlight one day.  I thought it was really pretty and had to include it.  I also got the 2 laces from Spotlight.

Materials Used:
Paper/Cardstock - Kaisercraft; Unknown
Embellishments - Kaisercraft paper blooms; Green tara blossums and leaves; rhinestones and pearls; Metal Butterfly; Elizabeth Craft Designs stickers; A2Z Scraplets; lace and ribbon;

I used my cuttlebug and new spellbinders cutting die to make the journal tag above my flower arrangement.  The die is called Labels Fourteen and has 5 different size dies in the pack.  I like that they cut and emboss, giving it a lovely edging.

The scraplet I have used is from local company A2Z Scraplets.  I coloured over it using my glitter gelly roller pen.

I hope you like my page!  I enjoyed creating it for the challenge.  Why dont you head over to the Scrap it With a Song blog and give one of this month's challenges a go?

Until next time, happy crafting!

Carmel xxoo

SIWAS February

Hello again!

Just a quick post today to show you the page I have made for the first "Scrap It With A Song" February Challenge.

The first song of the month is Justin Beiber's "As Long as You Love Me".  I will admit, I found this awfully difficult because I am definately not a Beiber fan, so scouring through the lyrics of the song I found the line in the Big Sean Bridge "ask me what's my best side" and immediately thought of some pictures I took of my beautiful baby Indian Ringneck Parrot, Zephyr.  Here's the finished product...

I apologise for the darkness of the photos, its quite overcast here today and this is the best I could do! lol!

Products used:
Papers - DCWV cardstock; Kaisercraft "Lush" Collection papers.
Embelishments - Kaisercraft wood flowers and rhinestones; buttons; WRMK string.

I have rediscovered my cuttlebug lately and cut the title with one of my alpha dies and used dimensional magic to make them glossy.

You can see all the layers and inking a little better in this second picture.

Why not give the challenge a go?  Head over to the Scrap it With a Song blog by clicking here and check out the songs being used for inspiration this month and challenge yourself!

I hope you like my page and until next time,

Happy Crafting!

Carmel xxoo

Rejoining the fold

Hi everyone!

Its been a busy few months and I have only just realised that it has been 6 months since I last posted on my blog!  So, as my title suggests, I am rejoining the Blog fold this week!  YAY!

I have been checking in on all the lovely blogs I follow regularly, but have had little or no scrapbooking mojo for a few months.  With this in mind, and the fact I am attending a retreat next month, what better way to kick start again, than with a challenge?!

I created this page for the A2Z Scraplets February Sketch Challenge.  To find out all the details, or even have a go yourself, check out their blog here.

I am actually really happy with how this turned out.  The sketch was so easy to work with and interpret into my page.

I didn't really have a plan, I just started pulling out papers and ribbons and flowers and eventually came up with this.  I must mention that my scrapbooking room does now look like a huge gust of wind came through and knocked all my papers out and all over the place! HAHA!

I don't usually scrapbook like this.  I am the kind of person who makes lists and likes processes, so I usually have a plan in place for my page before I start cutting and distressing and sticking and inking. 

Products used:

Papers - Bella, Websters Pages, My Minds Eye, Cardstock

Embelishments - A2Z Scraplets Phrase;  Dusty Attic Shell chipboard; Kaisercraft flowers, ribbons and pearls; Green Taraflowers, leaves and cobweb fabric; Versa colour ink; Tim Holtz Distress Ink; Zing embossing powder; shells.

I like distressing and inking my papers, I think it helps to bring them all in and work together.  I used my versamark and embossing powders in the title, but over heated it just a little to make it a bit "crazed" or "clumpy" in places, to add to the beach/rustic feel, but still keeping it "pretty".  On the shell chipboard I inked it with White Versa Colour and then, using a paint brush, swiped on a little blue ink.


I hope you like my page and now I have my creative mojo kickstarting, I hope to have more for you soon :-)

Until then, happy crafting!

Carmel xxoo

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 :-)