Jot Mood - Take 2

And this is the second page I did with the Jot Christmas mood board.

Photo from this year :-)

Less green, more black & white, and obvious inspiration from the chalkboard.

Jot Mood - take 1

Trying to get in the Christmas spirit I  thought I'd have a go at the Jot E-zine December mood board. I only had mini pictures of the kids from last year so I planned a Santa hat shoot but in the meantime put this page together.

I kinda like the wood grain with red and green but for some reason this didn't really do it for me, so I took some pictures for this year

and had another go, will post it later.

Thanks for coming by and I hope the festive season is treating you well.

I'm a Master!

A Scrapbooking Memories Master for 2015, that is!

Beyond excited to be able to add this achievement to my resume.

Must give a shout out to a very special woman, Louise Nelson, because even though she hasn't had the opportunity to nag me to submit for it in recent years I still have her sweet words ringing in my ears from all the times in Brisbane when she gave me the encouragement. (I miss ya Lou! xx)

Congratulations go to the other 9 awesome creative spirits who I feel privileged to be included among.

So 2015 will be a busy year again, I like it like that!

And just because I struggle to post without a page, here's one that was recently published in Scrapbooking Memories, they cropped it a little.

Thanks so much for coming by

New, to me

Is the Jot Magazine mood board challenge. I have looked at it before but never played along. This month however, it was completely irresistible!

In an effort to break out of my grunge comfort zone I have been attempting to create more subtle pages with soft colours and whites. I see so many pretty pages with no dark colours at all and have set myself the task to achieve a similar effect so this challenge was perfect.

This is what eventuated, I like it and am encouraged to persevere.

It is still me in the mist and stamping, the feather hand-carved by the awesome Louise Nelson, clocks from Kaisercraft. Ink sprays from Ranger Dylusions, journal card and star embellie by Charm's Creations, crochet piece from Lime Tree Creations, some big brads and twine, a few enamel dots and a wood grain alpha. The blue looks a bit green, I had trouble getting the colours exact.

This is the heavenly mood board

I might have another go at this board, it's so pretty.

Thanks for coming by

Just a quick one

for Sketchabilities this month

I put this page together using the Simple Stories 'Good Day Sunshine' range.

Because everything matched it was so easy. The wood frame I found in my stash.

Teamed with this sketch from Sketchabilities challenge blog, all up it took less than an hour, that includes drying time for the inky dribbles too :-)

White With One

Challenge this month is freesia (yellow).

Must admit I'm actually loving playing with yellow these days which still surprises me as I spent so many years avoiding it.

I may have overdone it a little on this page haha.

I have used a Prima stencil for the background, some cute paper bags from D-lish Scraps and pocket journal cards and brads from my stash. 

Having fun playing with some challenges this month, it's been a while since I've had the time, so there will be a few more pages to share soon.

Thanks for coming by

Gauche Alchemy November Challenge

Have you seen it yet?

It is all gold and glittery and inspired by Gustav Klimt.

This is the page I did

Gold is very popular right now in the Scrapbooking industry so there is an amazing array of products that would suit this challenge. I have used some Prima sparklets, Martha Stewart gold leaves, Heidi Swapp glitter frames (which I cut up), Viva Decor Inka Gold through a stencil, Twinkling H2Os, gold mesh, and anything that wasn't coloured I painted gold.

There are some close-ups and details on the Gauche Alchemy blog where you can also see the amazing projects done by the other creatives.

This is the mood board for November.

How gorgeous is this!

Hope you play along and share your work with us.

Thanks for dropping by

A taste of Halloween

I totally loved the mood board inspiration for October from Gauche Alchemy, it's up here if you want to play along (and I think you should). I could have gone a dozen different ways with it but chose to do a page using creepy photos I have been taking for years because I am just drawn to creepy, it's in my blood (lol) and this page explains why I suppose.

There are some close-ups and a little back story here if you want more :-)

Thanks for coming by

The Scrappery

Is a new kit club started by two gorgeous and creative young Aussie gals with a great eye for colour and design, Kayla & Renae.

They release several kits each month with different styles and themes (that also colour co-ordinate really well) so there is something for everyone.

Check out the blog or FB page to see what's happening.

There were 3 challenges at The Scrappery Peek Party this month, all of which I managed to complete at the last minute, nothing like a deadline to get me going, here they are in reverse order.

Third, make a pocket 'insert' for your album. Now I think I got this a little wrong because I did a whole 12x12 pocket page to 'insert' into my album. I rarely do pocket pages so in my album it is quite different.

Hawt car!!

Second was a sketch

and my page

That kraft card is a brand called A La Carte, from Lincraft, and is quite yellow.

First was not my usual thing (pastels) 

but I had lots of fun playing around with an unfamiliar colour palette (and a really old photo!) and came up with this

The Scrappery has a Peek Party with challenges on FB every month with points as prizes that you can put towards a kit.

Come along and play next month, you'll get some gorgeous pages done, meet some new friends, and maybe win a prize.

Fun!

Thanks for coming by

Featured :-)

I was absolutely chuffed to be asked to be featured on a Worldwide Wednesday blog post for The Gentleman Crafter, John Bloodworth, Create and Craft TV producer, and occasional on-air demonstrator.

John dabbles in everything crafty and his widely read blog is chock full of interesting information and links, I can lose a lot of time there!

You can read my interview here 

Thank you John!

And as a thank you for dropping by, here's some eye-candy.

I did this page with Hazel & Ruby products (wrapping paper, wide washi tapes, and alpha stencil-masks) for Scrapbooking Memories Magazine Australia.

Thanks for visiting

Black & White

The White With 1 challenge for this month is Liquorice so I went all out using a b&w photo too. I recently found this old pic on my 'puter and it reminded me of the furore Steve Irwin caused when he took his baby boy into the croc enclosure. 

Here my hubby has the boys at work and they are doing something dangerous. They lived through it completely unharmed and have a richer bond with their dad thanks to these kind of experiences. I guess sometimes family bonding moments need to happen out of the public eye, away from potential criticism from those who just don't get it. Anyhow...here's my page...

I used some Liquitex Matte Medium mixed with a little black acrylic ink, applied with a brayer, to get the look of fence palings on the background. Some gyprock tape, black craft paper, and WOW chipboard messy circles.

Stamping with bubble wrap too.

Thanks for dropping by

Sketch time

at Berry71bleu this month

This is the page I made using some fab products from my awesome Camp Mojo goody bag. Many thanks to Basic Grey and American Crafts!!

Using this great sketch. It's versatile and easy to adapt to anything you want.

Stil time to play along, just follow the links above.
Thanks for coming by

Sitting Beside Inspiration

Back in June I went to an art camp at Lake Keepit with a bunch of fabulous ladies. I had the good fortune to be seated next to one of my big-time scrappy crushes and a huge inspiration art-wise. Lisa Oxley lives in full colour and her art is straight from her creative and generous soul.

This page was inspired by her style

 I used a TCW stencil and texture paste for the starbursts, Dylusions ink sprays, Tim Holtz stamps, tissue paper, and the lightbulb stencil from UmWow with black ink.

And this page I kept pretty simple to let the awesome photo, taken by Lisa, shine.

Again with the texture paste, this time I used a 12x12 chipboard frame, plus Dylusions ink spray, heart punchinella as a mask with Tim Holtz distress paint, a little bit of bling and some ink.

My newest pages, from Camp Mojo, are still on the camera.

I'm hoping it won't take too long to share some with you but at the moment I'd rather create than compute.

That's a good thing, right?!

Thanks for coming by

New place for challenges

With the Gauche Alchemy store on hiatus the powers that be have been so gracious as to keep us Alchemists on and give us a cool new monthly challenge to play with.

I feel blessed to be able to continue to create with this amazing bunch of women and I'm very excited about the challenges we might be given, knowing the quirky and down to earth natures of these girls.

Our first challenge was based on Frida Kahlo and after some soul searching

I came up with this journal page.

It was based on this mood board

When you have your project finished make sure you link it up to the Entries tab on the blog.

Can't wait to see what you do!!

D-lish #8 - Last of the binge posts :-)

Challenge 8 for the D-lish 5th Birthday Bonanza Cybercrop

Last one! 

And I want to say a big thank-you to D-lish scraps for rekindling my passion. Lately it's been a struggle to create and not really something I was enjoying, I would go to my art room and sit and shuffle, not achieve anything at all. The push to create 8 pages in a short space of time has got me back into the right headspace for scrapping and art journalling, so THANK-YOU D-LISH!

And here is my last page

From this

I used an A4 sized plastic bag to 'print' mist all over the background.

Thanks so much for coming to check out my work.

It is so wonderful to be able to share in an online community

of like-minded souls.

D-lish #7 - binge post cont'd

Challenge 7 for the D-lish 5th Birthday Bonanza Cybercrop

From this

I think this is my favourite of all 8 pages, because of the story. This page, to me, gets right to the heart of what scrapbooking is about. The photos are nothing special, having been taken with my (5 year old) phone but together with the words they tell a complete and enchanting story of a chance meeting at the park.

D-lish #6 - binge post cont'd

Challenge 6 for the D-lish 5th Birthday Bonanza Cybercrop

From this

I chose the first vertical line. I painted the entire background piece of patterned paper with a white-wash using Tim Holtz Distress paint. Lots of hearts in the die-cuts and on the background with a stencil. A couple of wood veneer hearts, a little stitching, journalling done on my newly refurbished 1970's typewriter and a chevron bag from D-lish.

D-lish #5 - binge post cont'd

Challenge 5 for the D-lish 5th Birthay Bonanza Cybercrop

From this

This one was a real challenge for me. I don't normally put a lot of stuff on my pages so such a big list was a daunting prospect. I'm really happy how it turned out and quite surprised it doesn't look busy at all.

I also snuck in a delightful D-lish flair and it suits perfectly.