Online Crop with Shimelle - Challenge 4

After I spent so long on challenge 3, I decided to keep challenge 4 simple :-)  I had the Teresa Collins collection pack that I won recently (Thank you Teresa!) and blue is my most favourite of colours.  So the obvious answer to the question of "What I would mix with yellow and grey?" is going to have to be BLUE!

I cut the yellow flowers out of one of the papers and layered them up with some of the die-cuts from the collection.  Added a few bits and pieces like the navy silk ribbon and I was done.  Another Disney photo scrapped - YEAH!!!!  (only about 900 to go! LOL)  This one didn't photograph so nicely this morning, as the background is Bazzill Thunder - a dark grey & the Thickers are silver foil.  Quick, easy and effective!

Have a magical day!

Chipper

Online Crop with Shimelle - Challenge 3

Last night I found the energy to scrap and managed to complete TWO more challenges from over at Shimelle's.  It has been an exhausting week but I have been aching to do this challenge ever since it was posted.  Challenge 3 was all about mixing styles.

I knew right away which style I admire and would like to try to incorporate in my own :-)  I just love Amy from Sparkling Gnome Studios.  If you are reading this Amy please don't be embarrassed by what I am about to say :-)  I find Amy's work to be unique and refreshing, where every page carries with it a little piece of her heart.  I know there are others out there who do pages that have similar elements, but in my opinion they often lack soul ... they are designed just for designs sake.  I am inspired when I read Amy's blog.  I have copied a few of her latest layouts so that you can get a feel for what I mean and if I have done it right, clicking on each photo will take you to the full post.

  

Do you see what I am talking about?????  Now I don't presume to say that I can copy or imitate Amy's style but there are elements that I can try to incorporate into my own layout for the challenge. (On a side note if you ever teach a class Amy and I am nearby - I will be there!  With bells on!!!!)  So I grabbed a few supplies that were laying around and got started.

Lets start with this and see how we go ...

I love the layering and the paints and sprays, but my favourite part has to be all the bits and bobs that end up on the page.  That is where I struggled to come up with ideas, but as I was working on my page I reached a point where I looked at it and liked what I saw ... so I stopped!  No sense adding more if I am happy with what it looks like even though it wasn't where I had intended to finish!  So there are bits of Amy and lots of me in the layout below and I love the way it turned out.  I would have loved 'more' but that is not to be.  In real life the page has a bit of sparkle as I sprayed some Mr Huey's 'Shine' in parts (I love that stuff!!!).  I also had a chance to play with my new Tim Holtz markers.  I used them to stamp the starfish onto the canvas and then softened it with some water.  They stamp beautifully! (P.S. the canvas tag was the back of a store tag on a pair of jeans!)

This has been my favourite challenge all the way down to the silly whimsical clouds!  I bought that paper with the intention of cutting out the clouds and I am glad I did :-)

Chipper

Online Crop with Shimelle - Challenge 2

The second challenge posted over at Shimelle's for the online crop weekend was to use three different collections. This one I found easy to do now that my papers are sorted by colour and not collection.

I used a very old Basic Grey paper that was single sided from the 'Cupcake' collection and added to it an older 12x12 handmade paper (Papermania I think) and a sheet from a 6x12 Cricut pad. Wow! I hadn't intended to use all old papers but it seems that is what I pulled out. Add to that Basic Grey stickers from two collections, K&Co stickers, misc bits and I think I have this one covered :-)

I hand cut the arrow as I wanted to cover up the people in the background (one was helping the other to remove a wet T-shirt!) but I didn't want to crop the photo as the entrance to the Tropical River as part of the story.  I like the way it turned out.

On to the next one :-)
Chipper

Online crop with Shimelle - Challenge 1

Well it is crafting weekend over at Shimelle's and although I have a busy weekend planned I am going to try and get as many challenges done that I can.  Challenge 1 was to scraplift this layout ...

I started out 'lifting' it but it doesn't really look like I did now.  But I did lift the vertical line and the one photo element from the original.  I really need a new computer so that I can use my 'real' camera for photos, but at the moment the only way for me to get photos up onto the blog is by using my iPhone and uploading them via the blogger app.  So I appologise in advance for the poor quality photos :-)

The best photo was in the bright sunlight so it is a little washed out but at least it doesn't look pink!  I used new papers by Cosmo Cricket (Tea for Two) that have been sitting on my desk for the past week screaming at me to be used!  I just love them.  I started with the vertical line but the photo I wanted to use was a 6x4 and took up so much room that I didn't use any horizontal embellishments.  I stamped a few times directly on the page and then painted crackle paint slightly over it.  This replaced the paper blocks in the original layout.  I doodled 'BFF' around the outside edge of the page but you can only just see it in the photo.

I also made some of my own flowers and added doodled hearts to the page.  I didn't have any matching Thickers and I was feeling too lazy go cut some on my Cricut so I painted some chipboard Thickers that I liked the font of and sprinkled bronze glitter on it.  It is hard to see it in the photo but I like the final result.  It worked the way I had planned it in my head so that is always a bonus!

I can't believe that I got a layout completed last night and this morning even though I was tired.  There have been some great challenges posted so far and there is one in particular that I really want to attempt.  Lets hope my weekend goes smoothly :-)

Chipper

Shimelle's Sketch of the Week

This week I might even be on time posting this!  I made a layout for Shimelle's sketch of the week last night, talk about cutting it close!.  Here is the sketch this week.

And here is my take on it using photos from when The Princess baked cookies for her birthday party-bags.  She baked a family favourite, Black Eyed Susans (or Swedish Spritz with chocolate centers).

Crate Paper 'Emmas Shoppe' papers

I used a few scraps I had from this collection and one full sheet ... there is still sooooo much of it left and yet I love the way it turned out.  I used some of the matching die-cuts and scraps from my desk to finish it off.  The Princess loves it.  She baked 177 cookies that night!

The photos were taken with my phone so they weren't great quality.  It was nice to have a sketch with smaller photos.

If all my scheduled posts come up as they should for the rest of the week you will see what i did with some of Shimelle's last few sketches.

On another note, do you remember when I was lucky enough to win a prize when Shimelle did her challenge weekend?  Well it arrived this week!!!!!  A beautiful box of Basic Grey goodies.  And I didn't have any of them as they really haven't been in the budget of late, so it was an extra special prize!!!

Sorry about the picture, the internet is playing up!

Thank you Shimelle and Basic Grey for the wonderful weekend and prize!!!


Chipper

Signature Accent Challenge

You may remember that a while ago I participated in a challenge weekend over at Shimelle's, along with loads of other people.  I didn't get a chance to finish all of the challenges but I am still slowly working my way through them.  One of the challenges was to scrap using your signature accent.  I looked back through everything that I have been creating since I finally unpacked my stuff, and discovered that I use paints, sprays and sparkle on almost every layout!  I just love making a mess :-)  So here is my page complete with all three elements.

Doodlebug paper

We spent one of our afternoons while at Disney playing at Blizzard Beach water park.  I loved the chance to use snowy papers for warm photos!  The boys lined up with the rest of the crowd and went on the HUGE speed slide.  The Princess was too little for it, so I didn't get a chance to go on it this time around.  (Besides, I wasn't wearing a suitable swim suit for speed slides!!!)

I painted some warm white randomly behind where I wanted my photos and cut some nice big swirls with my new Eclips machine.  I sticklesed the swirls with Frosted Lace to look like snow and then used the negative part of the swirls to spray more swirl patterns on the paper with Glimmer Mist Frost.

I had only recently bought the Jolly Holidays Lite Cricut cartridge and just HAD to use the cute little penguin with a very sparkly umbrella!!!!

I cut the title from the negative swirl card that I had been using to spray the swirls with.  That way they were already sprayed the right colour! (You can just see one of the sprayed swirls on the paper in the photo on the left)  And of course I glittered everything with my Sakura Jelly Roll pen in clear (just LOVE that pen).

Added some punched snowflakes and the journaling to the large swirl and it was done.  It was hard to capture the sparkle even in the sun, but you kinda need sunglasses to look at this page. LOL

Enjoy your weekend,
Chipper

Shock and disbelief!

I am shocked and have a certain amount of disbelief!  I won the 'Starting Point' challenge over at the amazing scrapbooking weekend that Shimelle ran online.  It made my night.  To be completely honest with you it has been a rough couple of months here.  I am guilty of not being thankful for what I have and struggling to come up with ways to keep what I had.  Maybe this is God's way of forcing me grow ... but I digress :-)

Here is the page I entered in the challenge.  It has become my second favourite page of the year and only lost top standing in my eyes when I made my page for the 'Bingo Card' challenge.

What a roller coaster day!!!  At least it is ending on a high :-)  The Thinker is very excited that we won with a page featuring him and his friend.  Thank you Shimelle for organising this weekend.  I was pushed to complete pages when it would have been easier to curl up in bed.  I tried things I would never have tried and have visited blogs of some very amazing and talented people.  I have even cried over a blog post or two.  I still plan on finishing these challenges as time allows.  If you didn't seize the opportunity to complete any of the challenges, perhaps you should head on over the do one anyway, just for yourself.

Thank you,
Chipper

Bingo Card Challenge

I am sure that you have realised by now that I didn't get to make a second layout on Thursday evening.  I was planing on it ... however, I fell asleep after I got home and slept right through till morning.  11 hours straight!!!!!  I knew I was tired, but that seems a bit ridiculus!!! (on a side note I did the same thing last night LOL).  So now there is no chance that I will finish all of the challenges in time, but I have completed more than half now so I am very happy.  Not too bad considering that I have worked for the past two weeks without a day off (one of the joys of being self employed LOL) and still have two more to go before I get a day to myself.

On to the challenge ... the bingo cards & butterflies challenge intrigued me.  I have seen so many layouts using bingo cards but I haven't ever used them myself.  Here is my version.  The title reads "LOOK" no hands ...

I think I have my confidence back as I love this one!  It was so much fun to make.  It is hard to tell in the photo but the background Bazzill has been sprayed and splattered (for some reason my internet is playing up and I can't get a good upload of the photo).  The stitching around the edge is a random looking pattern that I found on my machine.  It doesn't look anything like it is supposed to, but it was what I was looking for.  When I was sewing practice strips The Extrovert came in and wanted to know why I was sewing rows on a strap of paper :-)

I have a drawer in my caddy that holds all sorts of sea themed bits that I have been collecting for years.  That little draw got a work out for this layout.  I delved in and grabbed shells, starfish, metal plaques and the pearl strip.  I had great fun dyeing the muslin and building up the layers of scraps of embellishments.  I even had another chance to use the Glimmer Glaze I got for my birthday.  I painted the chipboard scalloped border in the left over paint that I mixed for the background. Then I stuck my finger in the glaze and randomly painted it.  Talk about being back in kindergarten!!!!

The photo is The Thinker at Discovery Cove.  While not technically the beach, they do try to make you feel like you are there.  As he wasn't a confident swimmer at the time, he is wearing a floatation vest.  It was great having all three kids in these for the day as it took a great deal of the stress out of swimming with them.  They even got to enjoy some snorkeling with fish as they floated on the top.

I hope you all had a lovely weekend,
Chipper

Chop Your Paper Challenge

This was one of the first challenges of the weekend but as it is something I do often it didn't leap out and grab me.  I frequently cut images out of the paper, especially swirls and flowers. So to challenge myself I found two sheets for cutting that only had borders and words (luckily they were double sided LOL) and went from there.  As a child I lived in Orlando, Florida for about a year.  While we were there mom took us to all the parks and sites.  I have lots of photos from Disney and Epcot (I was lucky enough to be there for the opening) as my Grandma came with us and she had a polaroid camera, but very few photos of any of our other activities.  However, I have one favourite photo of myself with my face painted like a clown at Circus World.  Sadly this park is no more, AND the photo is still packed and not accessible.  So I did the layout using just a piece of card as the photo place holder as I know exactly what the photo looks like and I can insert it later.  The piece of card helps me to picture where the photo is while I work.

Imaginisce 'Animal Crackers' collection

The hardest part was cutting out the banner from one of the border strips.  I used my Sizzix Eclips machine on this one to cut out the frames and the circle 'Ladies & Gentlemen'.  That machine cuts like a knife through butter.  It is a dream to use.  Added some inked edges and stapled on the little tickets I cut from another border strip and the layout is done.  SO much cheaper than buying all the embellishment packs, but it does take more time.

I couldn't find any lettering the right colour, so I added gold Smooch to some Thickers to make them work.  I tried both a brownish colour and the gold, and now I think I may have preferred it if I had gone ahead with the darker one.  This will be the first childhood photo of myself that I have scrapped to keep!  YEAH!!!!  The only other childhood photos of mine that I have scraped I gave away to grandparents as presents.  On the proviso that they willed them to me of course :-)

One layout done today and I am not even home yet.  This may be another two layout day!
Chipper

Half Page Challenge

This challenged frightened the life out of me!  Scrap using only HALF the page!!!!!!!  I didn't think I could do it, so I didn't.  Until last night that is.  On Monday morning I went and looked at the pages other people had done for this one.  I don't remember any one in particular but I was amazed that none of them looked "empty", so I thought I would give it a go.  Originally I was going to use a busy page for the background to make it a feature of the design, but it wasn't happening for me.  As I wandered around the shop looking for inspiration, this UGLY paper jumped off the shelves and into my hands screaming "Please help me!".  It seems there were still lots of them left as no one was liking them.

(You may notice that I used the left over aqua/teal back on my 'Hot pink hoopla' page as it is a beautiful colour)  Then I was inspired.  The pattern in the center is quite pretty but it lacked colour, so I transported myself back to primary school and got out the gel pens.  I cut it just less than half and trimmed off the orange.  I then started colouring the flowers and some of the greenery.  It was such fun, time ran away with me (opps!).

So here is my completed page on a lighter pink background featuring The Princess as a very small girl at Easter.

Prima 'Paisley Road' collection

I really liked this one when I had finished it, even if it did take me longer to colour in the background than to assemble the rest of it LOL  I used glittery gel pens so it has lots of sparkle.  Added a few stickers and scraps of paper and ribbon.  The flourish is a new one by Dusty Attic which I cut a few bits off so that it didn't cover my beautiful colouring :-)  I sprayed it with Glimmer Mist Chalk 'hot chocolate' and it looks good enough to eat.  This weekend I am going to borrow a teeny tiny butterfly punch from a friend and add just a couple weeny butterflies to it, but all in all it is finished.

Two layouts completed in one night!  I think I should find more challenges to do, I seem to be getting lots done.  Perhaps that is because these challenges are not too specific.  They still leave lots to the imagination but give me some focus at the start.

I hope you are having a great week.  Mine seems to be improving day by day:-)
Chipper

Hot Pink Hoopla Challenge

Yesterdays daily challenge over at Shimelle's was all about HOT PINK!!!  The accompanying video was very interesting and it is always amazing to see how someone else puts a page together, especially someone as talented as Shimelle.  So hot pink here we come ...

Paper is Prima 'Paisley Road'

This photo is from The Princess's 10th birthday party this year.  She chose to have a craft party and we decked out the class room at the shop and invited her friends to come for craft, pizza and a movie.  They all had a great time.  We took photos of them all when they arrived and printed them out while we all made a small heart shaped mini album.  Then they were able to stick in the photos and all sign each others books.

This was the only sheet of hot pink that I could find and as it is The Princess's favourite colour it was a natural choice for this photo.  I thought the aqua and orange (can't believe I am using ORANGE again!) livened things up a bit.  A pretty simple layout really.  The flowers were made using Tim Holtz tattered floral die and the die cut layers sprayed with water and scrunched.  When they are dry you then carefully unfold the layers and stick them on top of one another for a fun dimensional flower.  I had run out of the pink and aqua papers so I had to cut some layers from white and spray them pink.  My hands are still stained today!  Add a bit of ribbon, a few stickers and some sprays and I was done.

All in all this page was a bit of fun and came together quickly.  Which was a good thing as it was my second page for the night and it had already become Thursday when I finished and went to bed!  Two layouts in one night, I am amazed!  But feeling so inspired after this past weekend of challenges.  Thank you Shimelle.


Chipper

Colour Story Challenge

When I read the criteria for this challenge I knew it was going to be just that ... a challenge!  I seem to have a love-hate relationship with red.  I love the colour but I can't wear it or I look like Rudolph, I always wanted to add red highlights to my hair but they turned orange.  Not a great track record is it?  For my thirteenth birthday all I wanted was a 50's style skirt with a ruffled petticoat (my friends never understood my facination!).  And so my mom made me one in red with white polka dots, but I had to wear it with a white shirt or I looked terrible.

And this brings me to the details of this challenge.  Create anything in white, red and aqua!!!!!  I love white, I love aqua, but the red has caused me no end of trouble tonight.  After searching for patterned paper in those colours for ages, I gave up.  So then I tried making a background by stamping and heat embossing with white on red card.  It looked very nice, but didn't suit the photo I was working with.  About 50 different options later I found something I liked.  This is another page for my family recipe album and has two recipes from my Great, Great Grandma.

Grandma Itter's Eggnog Recipe

I originally tried painting the background with Distress Ink 'Fired Brick', but it turned ORANGE on the white (a bit like my hair LOL).  Then I remembered that one of the kids had bought me Glimmer Mist 'Mels Diner' which is a beautiful shade of red with silver sparkle.  It looks lovely.  I used lots of my birthday presents in the end on this one.  The glimmer mist, Glimmer Glam on the teal flower, the Martha Stewart deep edge border, diamonte swirls, and the tiny silver butterfly.  I think I shall spend some of my birthday money on a daylight light bulb for my lamp.

I am pleased I finished this one and didn't let it beat me in the end.  As it is now the wee hours of Monday morning here I am headed to bed.  I will have to look at the rest of the challenges in the morning.

I hope you enjoyed the weekend of challenges as much as I did.  Now to try and finish them all during the week...

Chipper

Add to the story challenge

Since we got a digital camera we seem to take oodles and oodles of photos.  I am sure you do too.  If I was to turn them all into "masterpieces" I would be here all day everyday and never be out there living life.  But I like to have ALL of the photos in my album because after all they each add something to the story.  So I have started using the American Crafts 10x12 divided page protectors.  They make adding more photos in both directions easy as they hold three landscape and two portrait photos on each side.

You may remember this layout here ..

Well we took so many photos from the rain forrest cafe that I have added them in a 10x12 protector in co-ordinating colours.  Most of them were poor quality photos as the restaurant was so dark.  You can just see the next page peeking out from the album.  (sorry but all natural light has gone now. I'm sure you know how it is ... rented house, power saving light bulbs! LOL)

The next page in the album was this one ...

So I added more photos and made this side in the same greens and browns.  The original two pages didn't really go together but now the whole thing flows.  I really like the way this has linked the two pages.  This side even features a flower stuck to the outside of the page protector along with a funny monkey sticker!

The next two pages in the album are also from the same place and I have written out the whole story in length and put it in a 6x12 protector.  But that story is just for us :-)  One more post for now on a different topic and then I am off to work on more challenges.

Chipper

Starting point challenge

By the time the challenges started coming out on Friday it was already too late here and I was in bed.  It was lovely though to wake up to a whole list of challenges the next morning that I could mull over while at work :-)  The starting point challenge immediately called out my name as most of the time that is the part I agonise over for AGES!  Here was the start we were given and we could do it in any papers and colours that we wanted to.

I began with a photo of The Thinker with his best friend.  I was worried that he would find it hard to find another great friend after we moved half way around the world ... I shouldn't have worried as he is a great kid and people love him.  I used Basic Grey 'Granola' (more of my stash being used!) and felt so relaxed as I worked on this one as it literally all fell together.

I ink and distressed a piece of muslin in camo colours.  I had a chipboard bit of barbed wire which I embossed and added to it.  I even got to use my i-rock on this page on the dark metallic studs.  The letters are Petaloo 'Colour me Crazy Alphas' that start out white and are a great base for inking and spraying.  I used my new fav glimmer mist 'Bell Bottom Jeans' on these.

Of course the Cuttlebug came out to play and added the friend detailing at the top of the blue strip.  I then used another folder sideways and repeated that image three times along the rest of the blue.  It looks great inked with weathered wood.

Quick easy and satisfying!
Chipper

P.S. I had to smudge the face of S as he is not my son :-)  You can't go around posting pictures of just anyone on the net!

Proud to be a scrapbooker

This weekend Shimelle is hosting a three day scapbooking challenge weekend to celebrate how proud we are to be scrapbookers.  And as you all know by now it is my birthday today **Yippee Happy Dance** and so I am spoiling myself by spending the spare minutes in my weekend crafting.  I am never going to keep up with all of them but at least I have a week to finish them all, so really it is a WEEK of challenges!  My goal this weekend is to get at least three completed.

The first challenge was this weeks sketch.  I liked the sketch but I found I had challenged myself with the photos I had chosen.  They are from a carnival/fair ride and full of bright colours.  Here is the sketch ...

And here is my version of the sketch ...

The colours in the photos were clashing terribly with any papers I looked at, so I decided to make my own using white as the base and the spraying with bright mists.  It started great, but then I realised that I forgot to lay on the rollercoaster mask, then the mists did a great big slodge on the page and my hands, and all in all it didn't go to plan.  Not surprising really as it very rarely does!  But it came together in the end and after looking at it all day I think I actually do like it, so it must have grown on me.

I made the rosettes with my score board and the wording sticking out from the bottom one is a VERY old ikande twist tie!  I am challenging myself to use up my old stuff.  I have discovered that if I take a few of them out of my stash and put them on my desk they get used ... amazing! LOL

This was lots of fun to make as I did it early in the morning while everyone else was sleeping .... ahhhhh!

Chipper

P.S. The light was fading as I got to these photos, sorry.