The Shoe Tree .. with Show Us Your Stuff

I think I've lost my way, or my mojo, or my 'golden touch'. Nah just kidding. I've never had a 'golden touch' LOL! But I have lost my mojo. Now that I'm not doing any design work I feel kind of lost. Of course I'm still doing work for Scrapbooking Memories, and enjoying it, and for the most part I think (LOL), doing a good job, but the rest of it? I just feel lost.

Should I work on the 27 albums of photos I've been wanting to scrap in the pocket page style? Should I finish my mum's album and start on my dad's? Should I sort out the rest of the memories I want to scrap from my road trip in South Australia last year and then edit the photos for printing and just get on with scrapping them? Should I spend my time continuing to cull and organise my, not insubstantial, stash? Should I take the time out to continue playing with watercolours? Should I finally finish unpacking my stash from when we moved four years ago? Should? Should? Should? Sigh ..

I thought maybe doing a challenge might help. I'm not entirely sure it did.

The Shoe Tree

I used the current challenge at Show Us Your Stuff as inspiration for this layout. The challenge was fabulous and right up my alley. I love quirky challenges that both inspire me and guide me. The 'countdown' challenge at Show Us Your Stuff certainly did that. At the same time, I think this was about my third attempt at getting this layout done. Its been slowly driving me bonkers. Seriously. I started it last weekend and each day I've fiddled with it a little bit more and I've gone through at least three backgrounds. Sigh ..

The seriously fabulous 'countdown' challenge translates as follows ..

*  5 circles .. (I used buttons, a flair, enamel dots, punched out circles and a doily)

*  4 patterned papers .. (yep I've got that covered with lots of layering behind the photo of moi, oh and the background)

*  3 photos .. (again, I've go that covered .. well actually there's five .. hope that's okay)

*  2 different sized alphas (my printed journaling and title cover this bit)

*  1 handmade embellishment (my flair button is from The Greatest View and my buttons are hand painted)

Looking at my layout now I can see where I went wrong and what I could have done instead. Don't you find that frustrating? You know, when you've stuck everything down and you're looking at it later and you're like "oh I should have done this or that and it would have looked so much better"? Yeah? Could. Should. Would. Sigh ..

I am ever so tempted to pull this apart for the third (or fourth?) time but think its time to move on to another project and just breathe ..

PS: If you're looking for a fun, fun challenge and loads of Design Team inspiration, head on over to Show Us Your Stuff!

Hello Summer .. with D-lish Scraps

This weekend we're cyber cropping with D-lish Scraps in The Scrap Suite and its my turn to host a challenge. We try to keep things fresh by rotating the Design Team each month and also taking it in turns to do the different challenges. This month it was my turn to do a technique challenge and, in my humble opinion, I came up with a ripper! LOL especially as it resulted in a digital freebie for our customers!!

Hello Summer

I decided to go hybrid! Something I haven't done in a really, really, really long time. Oh and I don't mean 'just' printing my journaling. I mean seriously hybrid. I'm fortunate enough to have an A3 colour printer so printed a washed out version of my photo directly onto my 12x12 cardstock. I was also really persuasive and, using all my charm, asked Amanda to design some freebie digital downloads which were beach/summer themed. I loved what she came up with and printed them both on linen texture cardstock, and vellum, so I could use a mixture. Did I say I love what Amanda came up with?

Other D-lish Scraps products used include .. Little Birdie Boutique Elements symphony flower shabby chic, Little Birdie Kraft Expressions kraft paper printed daisies, Sequins, beach themed, soon to be released, Resin Buttons and Flair Buttons, 18mm Clear Glass Cabochons, Pinkfresh Studios Colourblock Veneer Geotag, and Arrow Set Raw Veneers.

I've also used a Scrap FX Seaweed Stem (2011308) which I embossed with Lindy's Stamp Gang (my new love) embossing powders.

If you have the time to scrap this weekend and would like to join in the fun, head on over to The Scrap Suite where you'll not only find my hybrid technique challenge, but also a sketch challenge by Wendy Smith, a colour challenge by Katie Howard, a product based challenge by Anna Allan, our 'Queen's' challenge by Rebecca Dammash, and finally, a kids' challenge because we know they like to scrap along with us.

Hope to see you there!

PS: I may have found a new location to photograph my layouts which shows up the sparkly 'stuff'. Check out how sparkly those sequins are!!!

A stitch in time

I still remember my girlfriend (heh SJ!) teaching me how to do back stitch (or is it running stitch?) over the phone from Canberra. She had me get out a piece of cardstock and pierce four holes in it, which I numbered one through to four. She told me to "come up through one, go down through two, then up through three and back down through two, then up through four, and down through three." Huh?!?! LOL!!!! But I got it! I guess the fact that her instructions were very clear and that when I was a lot younger I knew how to embroider helped.

Who knew where that lesson in hand stitching for my LOs would eventually lead!!!

Postcards from Phoenix

published in Scrapbook Creations issue 65

Bendoc's Biggen

published in Scrapbook Creations issue 72

I confess my stitches aren't always the neatest, the same size or even (when required) necessarily straight. But I love the texture and dimension they add to a LO. As I write this post I realise however that I haven't hand stitched on a page in quite some time. For a long while I desperately wanted to use my sewing machine to add stitching but, now seriously don't laugh LOL, was ever so slightly terrified of doing so. Once I got over that 'hurdle' I didn't look back and now when I want to add stitching to my pages I always turn to my sewing machine. Although certainly using the sewing machine is quicker, it achieves an altogether different effect though doesn't it? Note to self .. incorporate some hand stitching on my next project(s).

Meanwhile, thanks SJ for teaching me how to do whatever stitch it is I've used on these LOs all those years ago.    :)

More pink piggies!

For those of you who loved my pink piggy card series I have more pink piggies to share!!!  I adore this Sizzix die so if I can find an excuse to use it yep, you can bet on it, out it'll come.  So I'm in this Circle Journal swap at ScrapChat and one of the girls (heh Brooke!) who has recently had a baby decided because she was having her first baby and has fond memories of family reading nursery rhymes to her when she was little, that she'd like a CJ full of our favourite nursery rhymes.  Well as we all know LOL I struggle when it comes to selecting a favourite anything so a favourite nursery rhyme?  Not a hope.  But if I 'did' This little piggy at least I might be able to incorporate some more pink piggies into my creations.  So I did and I have!

This little piggy

products used include: various patterned papers from My Little Shoebox Sky's the Limit, Away We Go, Flying High, Whoo Loves You, and Imagine a Forest collections; Sizzix die, Pig #2; Stampin' Up! Whisper White cardstock; American Crafts Thickers, Delight, Fabric, Black; pink Kindy Glitz; Glossy Accents; black Kaiser pearls; buttons and embroidery cotton

Sign-in

(same products used as above)

Talking about CJs, although not pink piggies, here is another CJ entry for a friend (heh Pud [aka Sue]!) who's CJ theme was the number five ... yes "5".  Talk about cryptic huh?!  Did this theme cause me a headache or two?  Yep you bet it did.  I came up with my idea for my pages loooooong before I actually did them and then when I did them, feeling somewhat gloomy, I felt they were a bit 'political/social commentary' if you know what I mean.  Really the pages are not 'gloomy', rather are a good healthy dose of creative self-expression.

I decided to scrap about five things from the year I was born (1968).  I figured I'd find lots of fun and quirky facts about that time and do something fun and quirky.  What I found instead was a whole lot of irony.  For example, in 1968 the first successful heart transplant was performed and the first Big Mac was sold in a McDonalds restaurant.  Just as well huh?  That they got the heart transplant procedure right (so to speak) I mean.  I probably could have done a mini album dedicated to the ironies of 1968 but was limited to choosing five items and a double 8x8.  To express how I felt about the events I chose, I used lots of symbolism ... I printed my background using Martin Luther King Jr's I have a dream speech on kraft cardstock (the colour represents the preference of a lot of African Americans at [and before] that time for lighter coloured skin) which I then 'white-washed' with white paint.  I even went to the extent of using black cotton in my sewing machine with white cotton in my bobbin.  Of course all relevant because Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated in 1968 when in Memphis to speak out against growing violence in the Civil Rights Movement; one of the five events I included on my pages.  So yep I reckon you could say this is creative self-expression at its best.  Well, my best!

Anyways here is my "5" CJ entry for Pud ...

Ironic

products used include: kraft cardstock; white acrylic paint; Basic Grey Color Me Silly patterned paper; Cuttlebug Arrows die; My Little Shoebox mini alphabet stickers; Fundamentals Petites alphabet stickers; American Crafts Thickers, Subway, Black, Foam; pure black Zig Writer; sewing machine and cotton

Sign-in

(same products used as above)

PS: I used a 'play' on the term "[year] was a very good year" people humorously use when referring to the year they were born.

Well that's enough of CJ pages for today.  Besides, I need to find another excuse to create more pink piggies ...

est. 365

When GB and I were renting (in between having sold our old home and waiting for construction of the new one to be completed) we rented a home in a new estate with enormous, empty paddocks behind us with the most vast, open skies.  Skies larger than anything we had ever seen before in Melbourne.  Well at least compared to those we had grown accustomed to seeing from our backyard at our previous inner city home where the nights were never truly dark because of all the city lights.  These unobstructed skies out west were like those from the country ... possibly even better, because they were in our own backyard!!!

The living end of our home faced directly west.  We had really, really large sliding glass doors which faced directly west.  It was hot.  Hotter than hot.  We had no shade.  Nothing at all.  Even in the middle of a freezing cold Melbourne's winter it was hot.  Too hot.  In summer it bordered on unbearable.  But every single night nature put on a spectacular show, seemingly just for us.  I don't know how many other people (if any) living on our side of the street with the same western aspect stopped to enjoy these magical moments in each night.  But when GB was home we certainly did.  Oh and did we photograph them ... much?  LOL it almost became a competition between the two of us to see who could get the better photos.  Don't tell GB but I'll confess that without the use of a tripod his top of the range Panasonic Lumix took some pretty darn amazing photos and the one on this LO is one of his.

So yep, we sweltered.  So much so I lost weight ROFL!!!  I don't miss the sweltering now that we're in our new home; but I sure do miss the spectacular sunsets.  And those quiet moments standing together, in each other's arms, watching the day slowly come to an end.

Thanks Lucy (Crazymumm) for a fabulous sketch to work with for the ScrapChat February sketch challenge.  It was exactly what this photo needed.

products include a Rhonna Farrer digital frame, Bo Bunny dots cardstock, various dies, a gorgeous {Yillup Designs} beaded crocheted flower, and a handmade and designed stick pin by Leababy (thanks for the RAK Leanne and yes please ... LOL I'm begging you ... do hold a stick pin swap!!!)

Lucy's sketch

Wishing everyone the start to a fabulous weekend.  Hugs ...

PS:  Does anyone have any tips for photographing LOs with large (or small for that matter) transparencies on them without (a) getting yourself in the reflection of the transparency and (b) without getting any shading or grey areas on the transparency?  This is an appallingly bad photo of my LO but I'm otherwise at a loss.  Any and all tips and techniques would be gratefully received.  :)