Merry Christmas

My last layout I made for Patti is another one featuring the ever cute Finn and Teddy wearing their Santa hats. 

This one is entered in Off The Rails Scrapbooking which has a traditional Christmas theme for December. 

I hope you all have a lovely Christmas. My husband and I are off to New York to celebrate it with my eldest son and daughter in law who live there now. Stay safe and warm, or cool, depending in what part of the world you are in.

Loved

For my second layout For Patti I have used two more photos of her adorable dogs, Finn and Teddy.  This one is a real labour of love as I hate sewing with a passion but after I had done the stenciling I felt the layout needed a bit more and didn't want to add anymore colour. So this was also a challenge to myself to not 'fill up the page' which I always find hard not to. 

I am entering this in the challenge at Creative Artiste whose December theme is: 

  "Anything Mixed Media Goes" 

                                                            

Remember Beautiful Moments

I have managed to complete three layouts in December and all in record time as they are a Christmas present for my friend in Minnesota, Patti, who has two beautiful Golden Retrievers, Finn and Teddy. 

This first layout is her beautiful and very photogenic Finn. He has the most beautiful sorrowful eyes. Patti takes the most incredibly beautiful photos of her dogs (she also has a Pomeranian, Lina) and I especially love that as there is plenty of snow in Minnesota that provides a stunning backdrop for these handsome boys.

For my first layout I was inspired by the December mood board at White...with one. I misted some white card stock with some Prima Colour Bloom spray using the chippies to mask the paper as well as using them on the layout. The flowers all started out as white and I have added various shades of green with paints and mica powder as well as snow, glitters and mica flakes.

The Sweet Life

Back again with my last challenge entry for the month. This time I'm joining in at 123 challenge and have scrapped a photo of a favourite cafe from one of our many visits to beautiful Paris.

Christmas Memories to Cherish

In Australia we celebrate Christmas in summer, often in scorching heat. Christmas bbq's and even beach picnics are the norm. Although I stick to tradition, ice cream plum puddings are substituted for traditional boiled and steamed puddings and seafood and salads have replaced the traditional turkey in many homes, but I would never give up the ham...my favourite thing on the table!

A couple of years ago we travelled north for Christmas, and when I say north I mean WAY NORTH.....all the way to Quebec City. It was truly a winter wonderland and one that will be etched in my mind for ever.

This photo is me sitting in Santa's chair. He must have been off feeding the reindeers or something at the time. I have created this layout for the November Mood Board challenge at Maja Design using their papers of course and would be thrilled if I was lucky enough to win their new Christmas collection "I wish".

Willkomen

I am honoured to be guest designer over at Scrap Our Stash  this month and this is my second layout I have created for them, this one being for the November Sketch +3 Sketch Challenge.

I really liked this sketch so I pretty much followed it to a T. I used all the colours in the challenge plus some glitzy cherries, inkadinkado ink and I made an index card using a die. The cuckoo clock and scroll hippie are from Dusty Attic and the papers I have had in my stash for many years.

My husband and I visited the beautiful Black Forest in Germany last year and cuckoo clocks and all things cherry were everywhere! My husband is always obliging with the silly hats we come across in our travels although, I'm not sure he knew he was going to end up on a scrapbook page when he let me take this picture. 

Off We Go

I am very honoured and excited to have been asked to be a guest designer for November at

 Scrap Our Stash

The first challenge for this month is

And here is my layout

I have never tried to create a space theme before and with a bit of trepidation I got out my stencil, mists, paints and glitter. I used a Kaisercraft die to cut out my stars and the chipboard rings are from Dusty Attic. I have used a lot of foam and cardboard to lift up my foreground about half an inch to give my layout dimension and create a tunnel/lost in space effect. I had a lot of fun with this layout going out of my comfort zone. I kept remembering that great quote: "there is no wrong or right when it comes to scrapbooking".  

November 15th is the reveal for the mid month sketch challenge...would love to see you come back then and see what I created. for that challenge.

New York

I am entering this layout into two new challenge sites for me: More Than Words and Scrapki-Wyzwaniowo.

The challenge at  More Than Words is based on a word inspiration and a creative challenge. 

Word Inspiration - CHANGE

Creative Challenge - OMBRE

I have been to Central Park NYC many times and now that my son and daughter-in-law live in New York City I try and visit at least twice a year. Each time I visit I love to go to Central Park and see the CHANGES from season to season. It's beauty never ceases to amaze me and I would have a hard time if I had to chose my favourite season in the park but I have to admit there is something especially enchanting when it is covered in snow. This photo was taken the day after the heaviest snow storm in NYC history in January 2016. Papers used are Maja Design.

The October challenge at Scrapki-Wyzwaniowo is a forest theme. 

Moments to Remember

This is a layout made with a lot of love for my very good friend, Robyn. Her father passed away whilst I was visiting my kids in NYC and when I got back I got straight into my scrappy supplies to make a memory page for her. I knew her favourite colour was purple and I really liked the retro feel with these Maja Design papers so I altered the photos to B&W to suit. 

It brought tears to her eyes when I gave it to her and we both had a good cry. Then together we watched the Western Bulldogs win their first Grand Final in 62 years and there were more emotional tears as this was Robyn and her father's team they have supported all their lives. 

And there it was....another Moment to Remember. 

With Robyn's blessing I am entering this into the challenge at Scrapbook Boutique. 

RIP Darcy.

You & Me

When I saw that this months challenge at  Challenge Yourself was a sewing challenge I thought hmmm, not me, I'll come back and see what's up next month. I hate sewing! 

But then I thought about it and what the word "challenge" means. I like to scrap in different styles and this is very evident here when you compare this to my previous layout "Saint-Emilion". As simple as this is, this was quite the challenge for me....to include sewing and of course the layout had to include myself. 

Did I mention, I hate sewing!

My husband and I visited the Black Forest last year and one of the places we stopped was Triberg to see the highest waterfall in Germany. The waterfall is not without controversy as when I was reading about places to visit when planning our trip, a lot of people were quite disparaging in their reviews of this marvel of nature. Remarks such as "it's just a trickle" and "tourist trap" did not dissuade us and although it was no Niagara Falls, it was worth a hike in the beautiful Black Forest. It also gave us an excuse to sample another Black Forest cake from the cafe at the foot of the falls.  

Saint-Emilion

As soon as I saw the September Mood Board at Maja Design I knew I'd have to join in. Autumn is my favourite season and although here in Australia it is spring time, as soon as I saw the lovely pictures and colours on the mood board I was taken back to our trip to Bordeaux in France a few years ago. We spent a few nights staying in Saint-Emilion in a beautiful chateau situated in one of the wineries.....it was wonderful!

The Maja Design papers I used were from their Vintage Autumn and Enjoying Outdoors collections. The chippies are from Dusty Attic, the leaves have been cut with a Prima die and the leaf stencil is from Tim Holtz. I used lots of different paints and inks on my layout and IRL the golds and coppers really glisten.

Hello

                     This is my layout for the September challenge at Scrap Our Stash. 

I was inspired by the little schoolhouse and used a stencil of bathing boxes that I matched up with a photo of Puppy Cooper and Riley at the Brighton Bathing boxes, which look like cute colourful little houses. These boxes can only be bought by rate payers of Bayside (which we are) and although they do not have power or water and you cannot live in them, when one comes up for sale they are highly sought after and quickly snapped up with those who have a spare $300,000 (which we do not). 

I also met the requirement of using book or dictionary paper by tearing some pages from an old book that I keep especially for scrapping projects.

All the papers are old papers from my stash. The sea creature chippies are all from Creative embelishments, the 'hello' title is from 2crafty chipboard and the flying seagull is from Dusty Attic. I used various colours of Tim Holtz ink pads to create the blue clouds and on the bathing boxes stencil. 

This Face Makes My Heart smile

1st of September is Spring here in Australia and last Sunday we went on one of our favourite places for dog walks, Wattle Park. The Golden Wattle was out in full bloom and was the perfect backdrop for a photo of our Golden Retriever (Cooper). 

These awesome Wattle chippies are from Dusty Attic and I was already planning my page whilst we were walking through the beautiful park. Most of the other chippies on my layout are also from Dusty Attic, except for the title which is from 2Crafty.

I am always happy when I can use up some of my older stash and I have had this Prima paper for years!!!

I am entering my layout into the Spring challenge over at Mystical Scrapbooks to create a layout using Spring colours, at least three flowers and at least one piece of chipboard. 

You Are My Sunshine

This layout featuring Cooper at his favourite place in the world: The Honeysuckles at Victoria's 90 mile beach, is my entry for the: 

Blue Fern Studios August challenge: Three Collections and Me

I have used the Seaside Collection. I love the quality of their papers...so nice and thick!!!

It is very rare for me to do any stitching on my layouts as I hate sewing and struggle with even sewing a missing button back on a shirt.
I recently purchased some Prima Art Alchemy Opal Magic paints and used a couple of the colours to mix into my 'sand and rubble' and love their effect. The colours are so pretty. The other ingredients in my rubble are texture gel, Prima Art Stones and Prima Glass Beads and Glass Glitter. The shells on my layout are all shells we collected on the beach that day. The flowers are from Orchid Crafts and I had a few seaside embellies in my stash that I added. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Arf!

Back from my quick trip to New York and here is my second sketch challenge entry for the month.
This is for the challenge over at Scrapping Clearly

Happy

I decided just last week to make a quick visit to see my kids in NY and I wanted to make a quick couple of pages for my dear friend Patti who lives in Minnesota and as I am a very slow scrapper I used a couple of sketches to help hurry things along. Patti and I are kindered spirits through our mutual love of Golden Retrievers. She takes the most awesome photos of her two, Finn & Teddy, although I'm sure it helps that they are so photogenic.



For my first layout I used the sketch from the August challenge at Stuck?!Sketches

I have used papers from Kaisercraft and Maja Design and the chippie is from Scrapmatts.

Fur baby

I had admired chippies from Creative Embellishments for ages but had never purchased them before thinking the shipping would be too expensive from the U.S. Well....I was wrong. They have a great range and really reasonable prices that help offset the shipping costs anyway, but their flat rate for overseas shipping is $US8.50 which is very reasonable.

So when I received my little parcel I couldn't wait to use my new chippies and how fitting that my first layout they would appear on would be joining in with the July challenge over at Creative embellishments.
https://creativeembellishments.com/blog/?p=9497

I was inspired by the colours in the image and also included stars in my layout, which was the challenge twist. The Life By The Sea Collection papers by Maja Road were perfect for this colour scheme.

I made a puddle by drawing a shape on some paper and adding some glossy accent polka dots before cutting it out. 

Life is Short

This month the first challenge I am entering in is over at

http://kraftpluschallenges.blogspot.com.au/2016/07/july-challenge-kraftboard-3-sheet-music.html

And here is my layout:

The process:
The challenge was to use a Kraft background so that is what I started with. I added some patterned paper from my scraps to incorporate the music paper part of the challenge and also added some torn strips from some old music sheets I had lying around.

I found a quote that resonates with me and printed it on a photo of Cooper and me playing at The Honeysuckles on Victoria's beautiful 90mile beach.

The chipboard is from Dusty Attic. The pieces I used are Elegant Pearls and Mini Shells and I have altered them with paints, glitter, glitter flakes, mica and embossing powders and glossy accents.
I made lots of confetti and covered them with glossy accents and stencilled some butterflies. I also got out my Big Shot and cut out some leaves and a frame for my photo.

My Sister

My entry for the June Mood Board challenge at  http://dustyatticblog.blogspot.com.au/     

I was inspired by the colours and used a photo of my sister standing in front of the St.Kilda pier in the early 1950's.

Central Park, NYC

We arrived in NYC the day after the massive snowfall in January 2016. Our first place to visit was Central Park which looked absolutely beautiful covered in snow.

I am entering my layout in the challenge at https://offtherailsscrapbooking.blogspot.com.au/https://offtherailsscrapbooking.blogspot.com.au/

Wanderlust

Joining in with two new challenges this month.

http://www.kaisercraft.com.au/blog/kaisercraft-june-papercraft-challenge

and

/http://scrap-challenge-yourself.blogspot.com.au/

and here is my entry

Escape.

This was my first ever entry for a challenge. I joined in with the Dusty Attic April Mood Board challenge, and to my great surprise I won!!!! Thank you to http://dustyatticblog.blogspot.com.au/ for my prize. I was thrilled to get a $100 voucher to spend on fabulous Dusty Attic products.