Lets Get into the Spirit

I am a little bit late getting Black with 2 up this week. I am trying to make the most of this cooler snap we seem to be having here in Queensland at the moment. Last week it was a stinker, this week I have a jumper back on. Not that I am complaining its putting water into my tank and it has been cool enough for me to catch up on, dare I say it, house work!!!! Sorry didn't mean to swear...lol Not too mention getting the book work up to date ensuring everyone is paid before they go on Christmas Break. So as much as I hate being away from the computer their is just stuff that needs to be done before Christmas Day is upon us.

The colours were perfect to use up one of my many Christmas photos that I need to scrap.



Products used: Bo Bunny die cut & Banner Stamp. Prima Mask & Flowers, Basic Grey Transparencies, Pebbles Chipboard, Glimmermist, spell binders die cut. Other papers are: Simple Stories and Websters.

I thought I would also share a card that I did which was also posted on the Printblock Blog using the Xcut Loop Border punch and a die cut which is not yet released. Papers used are from Theresa Collins Christmas range, prima pearls, Kaiser Blooms and some lace.

Jenni Bowling cardstock was used and I have given it a light sand to show the embossing print.



I followed through to the other side with the remaining piece of the die cut. Maya road chipboard was spritzed and glittered.




Thanks for stopping by and for taking the time out to leave me your lovely comments, they are always a pleasure to read.

If you've got time why not drop on over to Black with 2 and check out what the other Design Team members came with.

Until next time.
Fi

Creative Sketches

I decided to challenge myself a little on this one. Since I was away on a Scrapbooking Retreat with minimal products I didn't have the luxury to fuss around with my normal amount of stash, so I decided to use one sheet of patterned paper along with a sheet of cardstock, oh a little bit of cheating using another piece of scrap laying around on my table. Here is what I created.

White Bazzil cardstock which I applied random white paint to, I then used a Prima Mask and spritzed with Mel's Diner and Lime Twist. I used one sheet of MME Rosy "Remember" Lovely paper including the cut off strip. I decided to bring along my nestabilities, focring me to actually make some use of them, Tear Drop Circles I also used these on the scrap from the MME range.







Since I am not huge fan of tons of flowers I opted to leave these off. My flower/ribbon is made from seam binding that I spritzed and scrunched and topped off with a hand made embellishment.



Other products are from: Hambly transparency, Martha Steward Butterfly Punch, Sizzix Tim Holtz Banner die and Xcut Looped Fringe border punch. Prima Pearls, Bazzill Brads and Fancy Pants rubons.

And before I forget check out the following, this is a Design Team Call for an Ebook that Creative Sketches are putting together.


eBook Publication
We are excited to share with you today
that we will be creating an ebook of sketches!

"Being Creative with Sketches"

A publication you can download and print yourself or just save it to your iPhone, or iPad and use it as you wish! Limited printed copies will also be available.

The first issue of this ebook will feature exclusive sketches created for you! Sketches will be created by the founder of Creative Scrappers, Kristine Davidson.

We would love to see your application to be published in our first ever eBook! To submit your application to be considered for publication send the following -

email to Kristine@Creative-Scrappers.com
Subject line - CS eBook

Please include your name, your email address, blog address or gallery and of course attach 2-3 of your layouts so we can get an idea of your scrappy style.




Thanks for looking and I hope you can find some time to play along.

Pinch and A Punch

A pinch and punch for the first of the month, OMG its finally here, the dreaded crazy month. Don't get me wrong December is one of my favourite months, the weather has warmed up and we get to use the pool more, then we have Christmas day, spending time with loved ones and hopefully getting some RNR and then finishing it off with my birthday, overall its a pretty good month. However, it does seem to come around so quickly each year. Now all I need to do is avoid all the craziness that's seems to prevail everywhere before hand, good luck everyone!!!

Anyway on to the this weeks colors over at TCR. I've had this photo of my DD and my Nephew for ages but the colours have either seemed to masculine or way to feminine, I think I found the perfect medium with this weeks palette, still being able to add a few subtle flowers here and there without going over board. The rusty red was a little hard to achieve, I used flowers that I cut from "Country Estate" by Websters, I inked, chalked and spritzed in the end I had to settle for the colour they turned out.

I also started out with the sketch but I think I totally veered off that road, lol



I also thought I would try something different with the colours this week, and that is not do them exact. Since I am known over at CCG as a bit of a colour Nazi with trying to get them so close.

I hand stitched around the circle cut outs and added another semi circle of stitching. The dots were inked using a crafters workshop template and a colorbox rust red ink pad then dotted with dimensional pearls.





Product use: Papers are from Websters & Are Warehouse, MME Photo Overlay, Basic Grey Die cut, Prima flowers.

Thanks for looking and I look forward to seeing what others did with this weeks colours.

Bye for now Fi

'Sketchabilities - 59

After a crazy weekend with a summer cold thrown in I am finally able to upload my weekend events.  It was my friend Tracee's Birthday so we decided to celebrate with a Skype Birthday Party, I did mention crazy didn't I!!!  Well you can't have a party with out cake and balloons, and whilst Tracee couldn't physically enjoy them I did my best to enjoy them for her....lol  We also had two challenges to do, you can check out the other ones by clicking on their names.  Tracee and Debbi.

Firsts make a Christmas Card using non-traditional paper and we also had to include a die cut, metal, stamping and ribbon/fibre etc. All this had to be done in 30 mins.  Here is mine.

Second we used Sketch 59, we were allowed to use black and white only with 1 added colour with the added use of stamping, transparency and a die cuts.

Well all had to make and wear a birthday hats, hopefully the girls will post their pictures on their blogs for you to see. And this is the cake I made for Tracee and that I enjoyed. YUMMY!!!

. Thanks for looking and hope everyone else had a wonderful weekend minus any illness. Fi

HMITM - Challenge 185

Running a bit behind this week, still trying to unpack from my weekend away.

It was really great to get away and just scrap without the interruptions. Not that I really get that many at home, but it was fun to spend some time with like minded scrappers. I thought I would also combine the colours from The Color Room with this challenge, I didn't have time to plan before I left so I basically just had to wing it with what I did have in my stash.

#185 Thankful (November 21 - December 4)Canadian Thanksgiving has come and gone, but American Thanksgiving is celebrated this week.I would like you to do a layout about thankfulness. (any aspect)plus...

3 foam embellishments - I didn't have any of these with me so I used foam dots and covered them with glitter
4 colors of cardstock - pink, orange, raspberry and white,
5 buttons - I only had one of these in my stash so I used stickers and stitched them so that they resembled buttons.
6 stickers (non-alphabet)- at least I did have these with me.

I am more than happy with the outcome of this page, totally way to white space for me but even the colours were pretty good considering I didn't have much to chose from.

Products used: Digital frame from 2 peas, Bazzill Cardstock, Pink Paisley sticker dots, Heidi Grace button, Sizzix die cut swirl, Stickers, Prima Mask, Tattered Angels mist and MM rubons.Thanks for looking and I hope you find some time to play along at these sites.

Mad Hatter - Hat

I have been wanting to do something funky and creative in weeks, normally I like to do some sewing but the weather has been way to hot and most of my time is consumed with scrapbooking. So I came up with this idea to combine both. My friend is having a Birthday Tea Party so I thought I would make a hat for the occasion. I also received a email whilst half way through making it, asking us to bring a fascinator or some description for the Saturday night on my crop weekend. After doing a bit of research on the net I found their was no easy solution here, my thinking was I would buy the shell of the hat and then decorate. This is my 2nd attempt of the shell made from a pizza box and some thick cardboard. I hot glued the cardboard together then stitched the fabric on.

Velvet from spotlight. I used Chicken wire and a time piece from Dusty Attic. Chain is an old scrapworks brad chain. I also used flowers and leaf from Prima and Kaiser and a Websters hat pin. Ribbons and lace are from my sewing stash and ribbon bloom in navy is a Websters product. Bling is the hot fix crystals.

. Thanks for looking, and for any comments you may leave. Keep an eye out for my next hat as I already have an order for one.

Creative Sketches - 183

Sorry I am a little late getting this one up, I was away for a weekend crop.  WOW and what an awesome weekend I had.  I got plenty of scrapping done and met some wonderful ladies who made the whole weekend completely enjoyable.  Sadly I am back now and once I am unpacked I am hoping to get photographs done of the projects that I completed.  So keep an eye out for those later in the week.

Products Use: Papers - Prima & Graphi 45. Embellishments - Prima, Bo-Bunny, Maya Rds, Stickers Unknown. Ribbon, Matha Stewart's punch, Dimensional Pearls. K & Co Photo mat. Techniques - Distressing, tearing, machine stitching. Thanks for looking and for any comments you may leave. Bye for now Fi

This month is DOMINANT BLACK --WITH LIME AND CREAM .


Both of the additional colours this week are probably one of my favourite combos to date. The colours went perfectly with one of many pictures I had taken of our new dog Sophie. I did find however that when you ink or paint on black it can change the hue of the colour so I went back over my brick work hoping to get the right hue. I used colorbox bright lime ink pad but it seemed to go more of a grass green and its a bit hard to start again when I generally leave misting and masking last, generally I have my photo and papers already stuck down and then decide to add these types of mediums to my page. Overall I was happy with the result.

Picture has a digital frame that I downloaded from TPs. Hambly transparency was used underneath the word block, I used ink with the brick template but then had to go over again with paint as the ink changed in hue. I then stamped over the brick pattern with TH stamp and MM Manila paint.

Ribbon was twisted and stitched down, tape measure's were cut from Websters paper. Flowers cut from Amy Atlas K & Co Range.

Product use: Bazzill Cardstock, Websters Äll About Me, Crafters Workshop Brick template, Websters Stickers, Tim Holtz Stamp, MM Paints, Matha Steward punch, Hambly Transparency, K & Company paper.

Thanks for looking and I hope to see you over at Black With 2, this is a great challenge and really gets you thinking with the limited colour use.

Have a great weekend.

Fi

HMITM - Challenge 184

Challenge #184 - Mix it Up (Nov 7 - Nov 20)

YAY!!! The new Challenge has been posted by Janet.  Remember the rule in fashion - don't wear stripes and plaids together. Well we're breaking that rule in this challenge. Stripes , plaids, dots and flowers. Squares, circles, stars and prints. Mix it up anyway you want to but you need to use at least eight different patterns in this layout/card and because we want to keep it even more fun, a holiday photo from any holiday. Because this is going to be a happy mixture, the word 'happy' should feature someplace in the layout or title.
We don't want the papers to match the holiday though, that's a no-no!


So here is the Challenge:
 - eight different patterns, none to match the holiday
- The word 'happy'
- Any holiday picture and embellishments. ( Embellishments can match the holiday)

I decided to do a card this week, since the paper are not supposed to match the pictures I used Basic Grey & Webster scraps.  I have used eight prints in total, music, pattern, stripes, woodgrain, swirls, dots, geometric and flower pattern.   The papers are more Christmasy but I have turned it into a birthday card using the word Happy as my  main word.   I used the new Nestabilities die shapes in Ornate Artisan tags and Accents & Grand Labels.  Also used dimensional pearls, kindy glitz and Matha Stewart border punch.

We are so happy to have Shaunery Wharton join us as guest designer this month! She does such fabulous work, always with lots of wonderful details. The layout she created for this challenge is absolutely gorgeous. Have a look at her blog to see more of her work. Thank you so much Shaunery!

Thanks for stopping by and for any comments you may leave.

Creative Scrappers - Sketch 181

Yes I am back again with another post, the new Sketch for Creative Scrappers has gone up along with some awesome work from the Design Team Members. I was a little scared to say the least when Kristine gave me this sketch. So NOT my style...lol and CHEVRONS, what the heck are they....big zig zags??? I definitely don't use those. So after much contemplating on how to get these things on my page I finally was happy with the result, keeping to the Sketch but hopefully still capturing my style

I decided to flip the sketch to the right for my layoutl

I didn't have four pictures so I cut my die cut mat into the four pieces to represent the squares, the pictures used were taken of my kids when they went on their first solo trip to Perth to spend Christmas holidays with their grandparents. Underneath the photos I have placed cards that I cut from a Kaiser paper to represent their ages at the time. I an aeroplane was cut from a Websters paper to represent their catching a plane and the tree with the people climbing as part of their learning to do something on their own. Brisbane to Perth is just over a 5 hour trip so they did really well with no tears before they boarded.

Products used: Basic Grey Porcelain, Prima Ledger Pad & Flowers, Websters Stickers and paper, Bazzill cardstock, Kaiser paper and bling, MME Sticker and Dusty Attic chipboard.

Well that is all from me tonight, thanks for looking and for any comments you may leave, it is always nice to know other enjoy your work and share the same passion for this craft. Bye for now Fi

HANDMADE HOLIDAYS - BLOG HOP

I stumbled on this fantastic Blog Hop over at Lesley Langdon Blog and is also the beginning of the Hop. So if you've got a chance pop on over and check out the great items that have been handmade. Calling all crafters! We’ve gathered designers from some of our favorite manufacturers to show you ways to create something from the heart this holiday season. This 3 day Hop includes over 60 stops with inspiration brimming from every corner. Explore all thoughtful and frugal handmade gifts you could make for the holidays, all in one place on this Hop!

Have Fun!!!

Mini Book

Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend, I am recovering from a busy week of making sure everything was organised for my DD and DS Formal School Dinner.  YAY!!! Now it is finally done and dusted.  So after a bed time of 2am Sunday morning I have finally recovered so I thought I would post the remaining pics of my mini album.

Product Use: Websters, Kaiser, Magnolia Stamps, MME & Basic Grey. Thanks for stopping by and for any your lovely comments you may wish to leave. Have a great week, Fi

Mini Album Peeks!!!

Okay I have finally finished my mini album that my husband requested for a business associates wife. I have personally never met these people however they do put a lot of business our way.  Unfortunately even with all the money in the world it will not help you with some diseases.  The wife of the business associate has battled many health issues and deals also with her MS on a daily basis. She has had more surgery's than I can count on both hands and dealt with cancers and many hospital visits for chemo.  Her last tumors was found in her brain, which had to be operated on 3 weeks before her only DD wedding.  They where just thankful that she made the wedding.

So I decided to make an album that can host some of her favourite photos and also be a little keepsake for those left behind when her time does eventually run out.  I have left plenty of spaces for photos and journalling and tried to set a bit of a stage on each page to prompt her as to what to put in it.  Starting with Childhood Memories down to favorite Recipes to living life to the fullest. Anyway here is some of the pages and will upload a few now and then a few more in a couple of days.

I have used products from the following ranges: Making Memories 6"Album, Websters Papers, Simple Stories, Kaiser and Prima. I have made lots of tags, hidden journalling panels and lots of 3D of paper cutouts. I will upload some images in a day or two. Thanks for looking and for any comments you may leave.

Bye for now Fi