UR Beautiful LO

Would you believe I've managed to create a layout?!? It's taken me about two weeks to do, but I've finally finished (and at the last minute as usual!). This layout is for the Once Upon a Sketch August 15th challenge, but it's also one that I've been meaning to do for a while. I really love the lyrics to the Mercy Me song that I used, Beautiful and so the challenge was the perfect nudge for me to get the layout idea out of my head! Hope you like it! :D

Credits: Ten Reasons kit by TReed; Krafty Journal Spots by KPertiet; Words of Beauty by AEdwards;
White Frames by SSchmutz; Fonts - Pristina, Bradley Hand

*hugs*

A Layout to Share

I love using sketches, and I love this new challenge blog (Once Upon A Sketch) that has only recently started up. Their challenges combine gorgeous sketches with great journalling prompts, which I think is great as I'm starting to learn to document the stories rather than just scrapping pretty pictures.

When I saw the sketch for the current challenge, I couldn't resist and knew it would be perfect for my growing tummy photos. Of course, being the procrastinator I am, the LO has taken me all week to do and I uploaded this at the very last moment! LOL (Thanks to Blogger, I unfortunately had to link to my Flickr page rather than this lovely blog post in order to make the deadline!)

Here's the sketch:

And here's my LO:

Credits: My Wonderland Kit by KLewis; Flower stamp from Spring Vine Borders by MWise; Title from Pregnancy Brush by AEdwards; Strip Templates by LWeifenbach; Tab Journals by JBullock; Journalling font - LD Soccer Mom by ScrapNFonts

Click on the picture to get a bigger view. The journalling reads: Here I am in the last 3 months of pregnancy. What a journey it has been! It's been quite interesting watching both my tummy AND you growing, and now it's almost time to meet you!

Apart from taking part in challenges on UKScrappers (which I haven't done now for a loooong time!), this is my very first entry to a Challenge blog. How exciting!

Thanks for looking! :D

*hugs*

A Lovely Day and the Play Chair

For the first time in about two weeks, I actually had an enjoyable day! I didn't feel as sick and tired today as I have been so we decided to make the most of that and venture out. Okay, so the main purpose of today was to go and get groceries, but sometimes the simplest tasks can lead to other more enjoyable things - like a nice brunch in a Katoomba cafe; a surprising lack of crowds in the supermarket (on a Saturday morning); everything I needed to buy being in stock(!); sunshine on a gorgeous autumn day (which then turned to rain by the afternoon, but at least I saw the sun today!!); a lovely impromptu picnic lunch by Wentworth Falls Lake, finding a HUGE dog park (old unused golf course) that we could take the dogs to and then enjoying a nice, uneventful and peaceful evening. I definitely need to enjoy these moments as I'm sure I won't get much peace AFTER baby arrives! LOL

Anyhoo, here's another LO I did during the week:

Credits: Echo Park Walk In The Park PPs and ticket; Dog Moments rub-on and paw prints from Dog Gone Cute by Mindy Terasawa; Dog sticker, bone charm and staple from Dog Park by Katie Pertiet; Title font: An Accidental Kiss; Journalling font: SS Play; Template by Splendid Fiins. Created in PS CS4.

We've been really neglectful of the dogs since I became pregnant and virtually incapacitated most of the time. They haven't had their daily walks and are becoming a bit feral! In order to combat this (although I do know it's not the best solution), we play indoor fetch with them of an evening in addition to small training sessions throughout the day (when I'm not working). We started to sit in a chair to play fetch with them and being dogs, they picked up really quickly that whenever we sat in "the chair", a game of fetch would ensue. Unfortunately this means that we can't even touch the chair without the dogs going ballistic and thinking that they were going to get a game of fetch! Thus the Play Chair was born. LOL

Hope you're having a fantastic weekend!

*hugs*

Oh my, is that another layout?!?!

Shock horror, yes, I quite think it is!!! LOL

Credits: Blue Sonata Kit by Mindy Terasawa; Scallop Template #5 by Crystal Wilkerson
(from Tons of Scallops Template Kit); Title font - Cafe Rojo; Journalling font - Angelina. Made with Photoshop CS4.

Early last week, as I made my way along the Ella Publishing Blog Hop to launch their new eBook, Scrapbooking the Everyday, I noticed several layouts documenting the mundane task of doing the laundry.

I must admit I don't often think about documenting such mundane topics as housework, but I'm a scrapbooker, right? Therefore there is no subject in the world that is off limits to being documented on a scrapbook page!

Once the idea of scrapbooking the laundry took hold, it wouldn't let go. So after I loaded up the washing machine, I grabbed the camera and took a few shots. After several hours of digi element procrastination and Photoshop manipulation, the above layout was produced. I can't say that the journalling came easily and indeed, I'm not that happy with it, but my creative brain is struggling with anything interesting to say about laundry! If I do come up with something better, I'll change it. Or perhaps you have some suggestions? How would the journalling to your laundry layout read?

This was a very interesting exercise for me and it has certainly broadened my mind as to the things I can scrapbook. I suppose I've always known this, but to actually put it into practice is a totally different matter. Regardless of the fact that I'm not particularly keen on remembering how I did the laundry, perhaps future generations will be interested. Isn't that what scrapbooking is all about in the end - preserving memories for future generations?!? And perhaps in the end, that is all that matters. :D

*hugs*

Six (and a bit) Months

Wow. Can you believe it? It's been six months already. Well, a bit over six months as I've now just passed 25 weeks. I finally have a baby bump that makes me look pregnant instead of just overly fat! I've had to bite the bullet and buy some maternity wear as items in my wardrobe are becoming quite tight and uncomfortable. We've also been buying all sorts of items in preparation for the baby, and hopefully I'll fill you in on all this in another post.

It hasn't been the easiest journey to this point in time and I'm not optimistic about the next three months - emphasised by the fact that I'm feeling quite ill and exhausted as I'm typing this post. I'm impatient for things to return to normal even though part of me knows that once bubby arrives, NOTHING is going to be normal or ever the same again. In some ways I grieve that, even though I know I'm embarking on a whole new adventure which is going to take me waaaay out of my comfort zone! For reasons I don't want to share publically, I'm not looking forward to this new phase of life, but God knows what's He's doing even if I don't!

On a more positive note, baby has been VERY active and it makes me wonder if she's as impatient to be out in the world as I am for her to be?!? LOL So far all the signs have been good and I'm to present myself to the hospital next week for "booking in" - whatever that entails! If baby doing somersaults in my tummy isn't enough to enforce the reality of my pregnancy, I'm sure that the hospital visits and ante-natal classes will!

Now, is that a LO I spy?!? Oh my, it certainly is!! :D

Credits: Adorableness kit by Traci Reed; Template from Traditional Templates II by Scrapping with Liz;
Journalling font - Angelina. Made with Photoshop CS4.

This must be my first layout in about three months. I did manage a few digi layouts for the UKS Christmas Crop last year, which I didn't share on the blog, but you'll find them in my Flickr. I do prefer the touchy-feely aspect of physical scrapping, but in the absence of the energy and stamina needed to sit at my craft desk, digi scrapping is very handy indeed.

*hugs*

TILT - Things I Love Thursday

Welcome to the second installment of TILT - Things I Love Thursday.

I went out to lunch with Gus this week and to my delight, I discovered that my local Deli is now stocking Byron Bay Coffee Company's Chocolate Covered Coffee Beans! Woo hoo! These are the most delicious chocolate covered coffee beans I've ever tasted. AND they come in dark chocolate - heaven!!

So today, I'm thankful for the simple pleasures in life - like finding my local deli selling one of my favourite treats. :D

(Click for larger view)

Elements used: Jen Martakis DSD 2009 Digi template from 2Peas; Farrah's Designer Scraps Give A Little papers (recoloured), flower and sequins. This is my first digi layout completely done in Photoshop - whoo hoo!!

*hugs*

Bubble Tea!!!

Here's a layout I did for the Sketch & Scrap Social Group on UKS. It was following this sketch:

And here's my layout (as always, click for larger views - you'll be taken to my Flickr account as I've finally got the links to work properly!):

Some close-up photos:

Gus and I love getting bubble teas, from either Gumballs or Easyway, although we're missing both terribly as there are none of these stores out west and DEFINITELY nothing like them in the Mountains!! I might have to learn to make my own. LOL

I had lots of fun with this layout and it makes me happy because it's so bright and colourful (and fun!).

Materials used: Sassafras Lass Sunshine Lollipop papers and stickers; buttons and flower ribbon from general stash; really cute and adorable bubble tea "stickers" were made from a graphic designed by "Mepokeyou" on DeviantArt (copyright remains with Mepokeyou); pink Staedtler pen; fonts were manipulated in Illustrator; printed out from the computer and punched out with a circle punch or hand cut and I used Boring Lesson ("Bubble") and You Wish You Were A Shirley ("Tea").

Thanks for stopping by!

*hugs*

TILT - Things I Love Thursday

A recent blog post by Shimelle contained a link to a scrapbooker by the name of Joy Madison. I quite like her scrapbooking style and I'm really taken with her heartfelt and very honest blog posts.

Last Thursday she restarted her weekly posts, TILT - Things I Love Thursday. She invited others to participate too and I've put my hand up. It sounds like a wonderful thing to do and I might even incorporate some things I'm grateful for as well as things I love. TILT is going to be great therapy for me as I really do need to be reminded of the things I love and am grateful for rather than continually dwelling on the things I hate or things that annoy/frustrate me.

If you want to participate too - pop on over to Joy's blog, let her know and she'll add you to the list!

So, for my first TILT post*, here is what I love:

(Click for larger view)

Of course, it's my hubby - Gus!!

I've known Gus now for 11 years and we've been married for 9 of those 11 years. He is a gentle, caring man who loves me unconditionally - which makes it easier for him to put up with my ever changing moods! He has taught me to be optimistic rather than pessimistic; to think logically and practically instead of emotionally (although I definitely need heaps more practice with this one!); to see things from a different point of view; and reminds me to remain grounded when life gets too overwhelming.

Today I love my awesome hubby.

(PS. That's not to say that I don't love him every other day!! I do! LOL)

*hugs*



* Just for clarification, none of these TILT posts will be in any preferential order. They'll be in order of whatever I can think up on the day! LOL

Rumble Layout

I did a layout last week that I want to share with you all. It was done for the UKS Sketches SG.

This was the sketch (from the Scrap-a-gogo Create & Co blog):

And this is my version of it:

More close-up photos:

Supplies used: Basic Grey Max & Whiskers, DCWV cardstock, Autumn Leaves "Pete's Dog" Clear Stamps, HeroArts "I Love My Dog" Clear Stamps, title printed and cut out (font used was Graphic Attitude), green DMC embroidery thread, white & black pens, silver brad.

I'm not completely happy with it as I think it looks very boring, but I'm very short on ideas for dog embellishments and how to make this layout look any better. Leave me a comment and let me know what you think. :D

*hugs*

New Life Layout

Well, this week it's the Urban Faeries Team who are hosting the Weekly Challenge over on UKS. That's my team if you haven't already guessed. LOL

We had five elements to the challenge:

1. Make your own background or patterned paper
2. Embossing
3. Stamping
4. Use summer colours
5. Use lace

So here's my example layout:

Close-up shot:

Journalling close-up:

I made my own patterned paper by dabbing ink through an Impressibilities stencil onto orange paper. With the yellow cardstock, I used a Fiskars Embossing Border Punch to create the lacey border. The stamped elements were the little birdies and the journalling circle. The lace is pretty self-explanatory. LOL Finally, I did use Summery colours. Sort of. I couldn't help that by "going-with-the-flow", my summery colours tended towards late-Autumn-early-Spring colours! LOL

Right, well here are the materials used (are you ready?!): Bazzill White CS; Grant Archival orange paper; DCWV yellow & aqua CS; Spellbinders Flowers Impressibilities; Fiskars Eyelet Lace Embossing Border Punch; MS Arched Lattice Corner & Border punch set; Kaisercraft gems; Prima E-Line Celebrations Bright flowers; Green Tara mini flowers; The Paper Co Whimsical Birds clear stamps & Kaisercraft Journal clear stamps; Distress Ink Peeled Paint; Memento Dye Inks rose Bud & New Sprout; Green Sakura pen; Blue & Orange Whispers Markers; Staedtler pink pen; ribbon and lace unknown; Font for title is Storybook Regular, cut on CraftRobo. Lastly, I used a Pagemap Sketch from the first Pagemaps book.

I had fun doing this layout, although stressing at the same time because I was winging it along the way with regards to all the elements. LOL As I tend to scrap mostly in muted Autumn tones, I had to dig through practically every box in my craftroom just to find brightly coloured stash! Note to self: throw more bright coloured stash into shopping cart when stash shopping.

Oh, and what happened to the second week of Jessica Sprague's Cardmaking course and the rest of Shimelle's course?!?! Um . . . coming up in the near future!

Or perhaps not so near . . .

Stay tuned!

*hugs*

My New Hat Layout

Well, as promised earlier on in the week (although a little late I know!), here is the layout.

I pretty much used all Kaisercraft products and the paper range is Prairie Lane. I spent FOREVER cutting out all the flower/snowflaky things and my hands and arms are still trying to recover!

The journalling reads: "Winterfest 2010: After hours of enduring the freezing cold, I finally had enough and brought a hat to at least keep my head warm!!" And yes, I realised afterwards that I should have used "bought" instead of "brought", but I couldn't do anything to fix it! They should make brown liquid paper. LOL

Here are some close ups of the flowers:

Thanks for stopping by!

*hugs*

And We're Off!!

I've just posted my UKS Weekly Challenge. I'll keep you updated on how many people play along. :D

These were the elements of the challenge:

• A non-12x12 layout
• Include something BIG
• Use bright, happy colours or papers

Here are the examples I worked soooo hard on last week:

Look Both Ways Layout

Materials used:  Basic Grey Offbeat papers and coordinating scrap cardstock.  All the arrows, title, swirls and paw were cut on the Craft Robo.  Dymo labeller and red tape.  Dimensional Magic to give the title words and the paw an epoxy look.



JUMP Layout

Materials used:  My Mind's Eye Bloom & Grow papers. The letters, jumping children silhouettes and swirls were all cut on the Craft Robo from various files.  I used the Hot Off The Press Fold-a-Swirl template to make the flowers.  The gem brads are an unknown brand.  EK Success & Fiskars punches for the scallop and circle tag.  Lots of Kindyglitz glitter glue.  Sakura Stardust pen to outline the letters.  Cheapy glitter pen to write the words.

I feel so tired now after doing these layouts as I feel as though they have sapped all my creative energy!!!  Especially the JUMP layout.  Neither of them really turned out the way I had envisaged them in my mind, but I'm still happy with them.  I'll definitely try these freeform layouts again - they're really fun!  Why don't you give it a try too and see what you can come up with?

*hugs*

A Sneak Peak!

Earlier in the year, I signed up to host one of the Weekly Challenges on UKS.  This challenge involves the hostess/host team setting specific criteria that must be shown on the submitted layout.

That time has now come and I'll be center-stage next week!  Yay!

I've given this challenge a lot of thought and planned to do four example layouts, but of course I only started them this week, and haven't even finished the first one!! 

Yeah, yeah, I know, I'm very much a "do-things-at-the-very-last-minute" girl.

Unfortunately I can't show you what I've done, but here's a bit of a sneak peak of the first layout. There are will be three more to come.

*hugs*

Oh wow, oh wow, oh wow!!!

I dragged myself out of bed this morning feeling a bit better after getting a good 8 hours sleep (the first in a long while!); the sun was shining beautifully after a bit of a rainy weekend; it was a lovely, crisp 10C; it was a public holiday (hence the sleep in) and I was drooling just thinking about the strawberry pancakes I was going to make for breakfast.

Whilst the pancakes were cooking, I logged onto UKS in anticipation of finding out which team won the CC overall. I didn't actually find that out as the totals were still being added up, but I did discover that one of my LOs won its class. Oh wow, oh wow, oh wow!!!!! What a start to the morning!!!!

Presenting the winning LO:

It was the Angel Islington class from Friday (or Saturday in my case). Angie (the class designer) picked my LO from about 165 other LOs and I certainly don't envy that task! I'm sooo chuffed as I never thought I'd win a CC with my LOs. I certainly don't do a CC with that intention at all. Especially as I don't even live in the UK! LOL

I'm now eagerly awaiting some beautiful Prima flowers from the sponsor, Creative Craft World. Thanks heaps to them, and I'll definitely show you when they arrive. :D

You know what's funny (and you could tell this from my last post!)? I found this CC to be the most disappointing in terms of motivation and mojo. I didn't really find the classes to my liking and I only completed 4 LOs compared to the 9 or 10 that I did in the previous two CCs. Moreover, I win a class with the LO that I personally liked THE LEAST! Go figure. LOL

Despite all my whinging though, I did actually enjoy myself this weekend and the most important thing was that it got me scrapping (and doing things a bit differently)! I'm now looking forward to finishing the few LOs that I started over the weekend, but never finished due to the time constraints.

Oh, and which team actually won the CC overall? My team of course - the SHIPS!! What a fantastic end to a fantastic day! LOL

*hugs*

A Mojo-lacking CC Weekend!

Here endeth the UKS Monopoly Cybercrop weekend for me. I'm calling it quits now as I'm flaking out even though there is still about 5 hours left of the CC in UK time. In total I only managed a dismal 4 layouts. Not my best work either. I just couldn't seem to get motivated this weekend and my mojo was sorely missing. I'm not sure if it's because I'm already tired (lack of 8 hours sleep every night will do that to me) or if it's because my stomach has been feeling bloated and uncomfortable all weekend. Probably both.

Right, well, without further ado, let's have a look at what I DID manage to accomplish, yeah? Grab a cuppa and sit back as this is going to be a looooong post!!

First up - the Pre-crop Challenge. I showed you a sneak peak of this in my last post. Here is the full thing (click to get a bigger picture).

The challenge was to scrap the constant person in your life. For me, that's God. He has always been there for me no matter what and will continue to be there for me. The poem is called Footprints (you can read the full poem here). It's my favourite Christian poem.

Let me know if you want to know any of the materials I used. This goes for all the layouts I show. I can't be bothered typing each one out!

The first class of the CC that I did was Bow Street. Not really my cup of tea, but it was different:

I stuffed up the letters and paint but doodling inside the letters sort of made it a bit better. LOL

The next layout was a digi effort for the Water Works challenge, which was to scrap a water and/or holiday theme. I think I covered both!

For digi layouts, I use a software package called Scrapbook Factory. It's pretty cool and comes with a lot of it's own embellishments which you can supplement with your own image files. It's not as good as using Photoshop but I've yet to master that. :D

The next class I did was called Angel Islington. Again, not my cup of tea, but sometimes it's good to do different things! The challenge was to hand-cut a frame.

The final class I did ended up my favourite. I guess because it was very open to interpretation and I liked the freedom of that. The challenge was to include something hidden. Here's the layout as is:

The photo of the house opens up to reveal more photos:

And one more section:

Do you think it looks like a house brochure or something?!? LOL

Well . . . that's it! I can't say I enjoyed this CC as much as the other two I participated in. I'm not sure why. As I said, it might be due to lack of sleep and a tummy bug.

Tomorrow I'll tell you all about a fantastic Medieval Festival I went to on Saturday. For now, I really need to get to bed.

***hugs***

Stress, Win-Mobile reborn, new stash and a CC!!

What a day! You'll be glad to hear that I haven't been working on the Sydney house. Did that yesterday and have the aches and pains to remind me. LOL At least it's all done now and all I have left to do is get the keys and the lease agreement to the real estate agent and let them deal with it.

So, what's all this about stress, a Win-Mobile and a CC?!?

Let me start with the "CC". I belong to a scrapbooking forum called UK Scrappers (see sidebar for link). A CC is short for Cybercrop (basically lots of online classes and scrap challenges and some fun and games thrown in as well), which is run twice a year and this weekend is the first one for the year. It will be my third CC. The theme this time is Monopoly and I've been assigned to the Ships team.

Ok, now onto the "stress" bit. There was a pre-crop layout challenge which I thought I could get done and get some early points. God had different ideas though. All week I've been really tired with work and the long train journey home, so I haven't had any time or energy to do any scrapping. I did have an idea and had started with printing the photos and pulling out stash. To cut a long story short, I thought the deadline for uploading the layout was midnight UK time on Thursday 22 April. This meant I had until 9am on Friday 23 April AEST. So this morning I got up and started working on the layout. By 8.30pm, I was getting a bit stressed as I just had the title to cut out on the Robo, but he was playing up and wouldn't do as he was told. Eventually he cut out my title and I stuck it on. Crooked. ARRRGGGHHH!! Next to fail was the camera. Well, not the camera, but the operator was a bit of a failure. I find it really hard to work Gus' DSLR as there are so many buttons and functions and features! A frantic phone call later and I was sorted. Somewhat. The photos still came out a bit dud. Time was ticking though and I didn't want to waste it by taking more photos. So I jumped on the computer to upload the photo. Computer was running VERY slow and Firefox kept dying on me which caused me loads of angst. The air was a bit blue by this time and I was going insane.  Even the dogs were keeping out of my way. LOL  The photo eventually uploaded.  At 9.27am.  Okay, so I was 27 minutes late . . . or so I thought. Reading through the threads again, I realised that the actual deadline for uploading was 6PM UK time. 6PM?!?! ARRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! *cry*

Here's a sneak peek of the layout anyway:

Fast forward four hours later. The Win-Mobile is reborn!!!! Huh? I hear you say. Let me explain. Several years ago, when I got my second car (my first NEW car), I got personalised license plates, WIN282. It was a cute little Toyota Corolla sedan. Silver. With a spoiler - ooooh! LOL My friends christened it the Win-Mobile (that's "mobile" as in automobile). Unfortunately the Win-Mobile got sold off due to lack of use and the need for $$$. I wish I could find the photo of my first Win-mobile. It's around somewhere, in the piles of junk stuff that is still around. With the move up to the Mts this year, we needed another car, so I got a blue Subaru Impreza. I love it! I ummed and ahhhed for weeks about getting personalised licence plates as the RTA are charging me a yearly fee now. Boo! But I bit the bullet and got my new plates. Today I picked them up and put them on the car.  Introducing the new Win-Mobile!!!  What do you think? Snazzy huh?

Finally, here's all the stash I received today (all bought in sales - gotta love that!!). It all arrived just in time for the CC. Yay!

Well, that's all from me today. I've got to get to bed early as I have to adjust to UK time this weekend. The first class starts at 4am AEST! Ouch.

***hugs***