Storytelling Sunday - September

Well, it is still a Sunday so we shall still call it Storytelling Sunday, even if I am a week late!  LOL  This is my contribution to the fabulous collection of stories told every month with Sian at From High In The Sky.  Grab yourself a cuppa and go over to check them all out.  I know I will be a little later when I have a few more moments to spare!  They are always worth a read and you will laugh, sometimes cry, and ALWAYS have a great time!

This month I am doing something a little different just to get you all thinking, and because time is short!  We all know about Facebook (and if you don't then you must be a hermit) and like it or love it FB is often controversial.  But for our family who live scattered all over the world it has been a wonderful invention for keeping in touch.  As much as letters are special, lets face reality and say that we often just don't have enough hours in the day to write to anyone and everyone.

In 2008 we went on a family holiday to Florida.  While we were there I uploaded photos each morning from the previous day (I am an early riser) to an album on FB with comments about the photos so that family could see what we were doing.  It turned out that it was a wonderful idea for two reasons.  Everything was fresh in my mind when the photos were posted and as I am STILL scrapping the photos I have the journalling already completed.  AND as comments were posted on the photos more of the story unfolded.  It was like keeping an interactive holiday journal.

The photo story below was from the 'Back Lo't at Disney Studios and is called 'Harbor Attack'.  First you will see the photo, followed by my original description and then the comments in italics.  I hope you like it :-)

This was the back lot tour. We waited ages for this ride as it was cancelled due to lightning. When it started up again I was one of the 'volunteers'. Not sure what I got into!!!!

The LOML "doesn't she look happy to be a volounteer.. she tried all day to get on stage as a helper i think she lucked out here look at the next few photo's..this was a great show.."

Me "I was very happy to be a volunteer. I was just having difficulty walking in the heavy waterproof overshoes. They were 2 sizes too big!!! Didn't want to fall flat on my face in front of a few hundred people!!!"

The sexy suit I had to wear as the volunteer. I was the mechanic on a ship in Pearl Harbour. This is a specail effects type show. I was told to sit in a chair, answer the phone, and DON"T LOOK LEFT!!!

The LOML "doesn't she look great in this blue suit..."

I asked why I shouldn't look left and was told ... "You'll See!!!"

The LOML "just don't answer the phone..."

Answering the phone ... wonder whats next.

The LOML "remember don't look left..."

HELP!!!! WE ARE FLOODING!

The LOML "oops we can't see her anymore.. at this stage the kids were screaming with Laughter. We got a prime view spot because Christine was on stage.. Pity she abit wet..."

Me "It was fun though!!!"

The LOML "Trust me she is in there somewhere..."


It was very fun and the kids still laugh about it today!  See you next month (hopefully on time) for another story.

Chipper

Shimelle's Starting Point

Embrace your 'wonkicity'!!!!  I did :-)  Shimelle's starting point this week had a wonky strip of paper.  I kinda altered the placement of the strips of paper to suit my planned page.  Here is the starting point.

And here is mine with a photo of The LOML at the 50's Prime Time Cafe.

My Little Shoe Box 'Sew Cute' & 'Garden Party'

If you knew him you would see the humor in the page :-)  Note the hour hand pointing to the glass of wine.  As this is a series of photos all taken at the same lunch I have decided that they will all be on My Little Shoe Box papers as this is the third layout and it has just worked out that way LOL.  I have also fake stitched as the other pages also have stitching.  The blue stitching around the edge was done with a Sakura Souffle pen.  They look terrible when you first draw with them but once they are dry they are amazing!

When we arrived at the restaurant we all had cocktails with flashing ice blocks in them.  The kids thought they were great!  Along with the fact they were choosing a drink off the 'cocktail' menu.

Chipper

Shimelle's Starting Point

I wasn't a huge fan of Shimelle's last starting point (although I LOVE the papers she chose).  I think that is because I just recently scrapped a double page that was very much like this and I don't like it at all.  In fact I haven't even finished it yet as I am uninspired by it.  So when I saw the following starting point I wasn't very thrilled.

I have a friend who hasn't scrapped much in the past year or so and she is trying to get motivated to get back into it.  So a few weeks ago I asked her if she would do a sketch challenge just between the two of us.  I printed off the weekly sketch by Shimelle for her (she doesn't have internet access) and we gave each other a week to do it.  Sunday came around and our pages couldn't have looked different!!  (mine was the Halloween one I just posted)  It was great and she was so happy.  I told her that this time we would start with a starting point instead and this was the one we were going to use.  So I had to do something :-)

My Little Shoe Box 'Garden Party' & 'Sew Cute'

I got up early this morning and the house was nice and quiet so I finally got a start on it.  I do like how it turned out, but it drove me crazy in the process LOL.  I only finished it this evening when I got home from work.

I love to ink and heat emboss my chipboard and this bag of butterflies are some of my favourite.  I have no idea what happened to this one, but one of the layers wasn't happy and it looks like a furry butterfly.  My daughter says it is her favourite!

For the glitter on the second butterfly I first embossed it with clear and then sprinkled on some holographic silver embossing powder and heated it again.

I still have my few old foam stamps sitting on my desk and so I put them to use again.  I don't think they know what hit them!  They stamped the brackets around the photos.

This page doesn't really need a big title or lots of journaling as it is in the middle of a series of photos all taken at the same place, the 50's Prime Time Cafe.   So I just added bits and pieces of embellishment until I was done.  I had a picture in my mind of how it should look and I couldn't find anything in my stash that fit that image.  Oh well, I have to keep using up what I have if i want to buy more :-)

Neither I nor my friend had our layouts finished today, so we are going to compare them next week.  It was her turn to come up with a challenge for us and she went to the local paint store and brought us back each a set of the mixed colour paint swatches.  You know the ones I mean, with the colour combos already put together for using around our home.  That way we can randomly pick one and go with it.  Boy is that going to be a challenge, some of the combinations are way out there!!!  It is fun to craft with someone though.

Enjoy your week,
Chipper

Open wide ... it's an aeroplane

When dining at the 50's Prime Time cafe in Disney's Studios it is never wise to leave an unfinished portion of dinner on your plate.  The waiter is likely to pick up your fork and make it into a aeroplane and fly it towards the hopefully open 'hanger'!!!!  Funny if you are a kid, embarrassing if you are an adult. (I finished everything on my plate!)  I actually think The Extrovert deliberately left some food on his plate so he could be in on all the action.

My Little Shoe Box 'Garden Party' & 'Home Tweet Home'

I used some papers from My Little Shoebox (along with a scrap of American Crafts clouds) and quickly assembled the base of this layout.  If it wasn't for all the hand stitching this would have been another quick one!  I cut the plane on my Cricut and stitched a loopy flight path.  I then stitched the "open wide" in the same thread.  After all the time (and patience) it took to stitch those two bits, I cheated and drew stitching lines everywhere else.  I added a few extra clouds for a bit more detail and this one was done.  I have been itching to use some of these papers and they weren't working with any photo I had to hand but they were a perfect fit for this one :-)

Chipper

P.S. I always spell 'airplane' like this and for some reason when it came to doing the title I spelt it 'aeroplane'!  As I was doing this page I had the tune from an old Aussie TV commercial about 'Aeroplane Jelly' floating around in my head and without realising it I spelt it the way they do.  And I don't even call jell-o 'jelly'!!!!!!  Oh the woes of a mixed up childhood LOL  Here is the advert that was replayed on TV when I was a kid.  Enjoy, and don't get the song stuck in your head :-)

Busy Backgrounds

There are times when I just LOVE, LOVE, LOVE busy background paper.  You can get a layout done in around 15 min and from a distance it looks like you took hours.  I loved the end result of this layout so much that I propped it up on the piano all week to keep looking at it!  However, I am warning you ... you may need to go grab yourself a pair of sunnies!

Basic Grey 'Obscure'

I was feeling particularly slack and it was late.  I glanced at this photo and thought 'urban' and this is what I produced.  The is the FIRST time I have been able to use a piece of my Basic Grey Obscure collection pack.  I have had this pack since it came out and have never found a use for any of the papers!  We took this photo while on the 'Back Lot' at Disney Studios in Florida.  All I added was a bit of paint and glimmer mist around the photo, some ink around all the edges, the city skyline cut on my Cricut, mixed alphas I painted black, and some splatters of white paint across the whole thing.  Oh, and I dug out some old foam stamps for the squares in the title.  All in all I think it took longer for the paint to dry on the lettering than it took to assemble!

Sometimes I wonder if I would be happier if all my pages only took 15 min ... I think I shall still be scrapping this vacation when I am 60!

Chipper

Shimelle's Sketch of the Week

Finally, a day off!!!!!  I have planned my day so that I get the most of it and have already completed Shimelle's sketch last week.  I wasn't really inspired by the sketch as it was very symmetrical and not really me.  However I love to challenge myself and jumped in.  Here is the sketch.

I decided to use a photo from our Florida holiday as there are so many to get through!  It is a photo of The Extrovert and as it is kind of on its own I used it for this sketch.  It is very simple and went together very quickly.  And for some reason I didn't even use any sprays or paints!!!

Basic Grey Cupcake collection

Singing in the Rain is one of The Extroverts favourite movies.  He knows all the songs and was very excited when we rounded the corner and found this umbrella at Disney Studios.  No matter what he did he couldn't get it to 'rain' as he wasn't heavy enough to set off the sensor on the ground.

The pile of scraps at the base of the photo was almost all cut from the cover page of the collection pack.  I love that page as it has all of the papers on it, but in smaller prints.  They work great for punched shapes and handmade mini matching embellishments.  I always buy the Basic Grey papers in the collection packs, as I end up using the plainer co-ordinating papers (background red) which I wouldn't have bought otherwise.  They are great for making quick pages like this one.  If all of our Florida photos come together as quickly as this one did, I might just finish them all in my lifetime!

Chipper

Vintage Disney

It is the end of my long fortnight!  We open later and close earlier on Sundays, and the whole family enjoy that, but twice a month I work a 15hr Friday and it takes a huge chunk of my energy (I think I am getting a little too old for such long days!).  I have been working furiously on wedding invitations this last week and they were delivered today so that this afternoon I could spend my free time on whatever I chose without any lingering guilt.  I didn't even think to take a photo as this one was a little unusual.  Most of the guests are from overseas and invitation was 6 pages long!  I joked that I was working on my 'novel' all week long.

So now that the week has come to an end I finally had the chance to catch my breath and have some fun, so I grabbed the opportunity with both hands and did something a little different.  I scrapped the photo from our first visit to the '50's Prime Time Cafe' at Disney Studios in Florida.  It didn't end up at all how I had planned but I LOVE the final result.  There is no natural light at 11pm at night so the colours in the photo are a little washed out but I just couldn't wait to share :-)  (have updated photo to one a little better)

Papers are HOTP and Rusty Pickle. Stickers are from the park.

I really enjoyed playing with inks, sprays, and the Martha Stewart punch 'doily lace'.  A few days after visiting the park we drove up to visit my Aunt in Lake City.  After a spot of shopping at her local store I found a wonderful page by Rusty Pickle that was full of 50's style cooking images.  I bought it with this photo in mind and I am really happy I ended up using it.  There is still half left as it was quite yellow (you will find that this is my least favourite colour!)

The strip at the top of the page began life as a piece of Bazzill 'vanilla' and it was inked with Tim Holtz Distrss Inks 'Tea Dye', 'Vintage Photo' & 'Weathered Wood'.  I then sprayed it lightly with Glimmer Mist 'Walnut Gold' and 'Bell Bottom Jeans' (a new colour and fast becoming my fav!).  I painted the turned over part with just the 'Bell Bottom Jeans'.  The strip of doily at the bottom with only inked with 'Weathered Wood' to bring more blue into the layout.

To embellish the journaling block I used a Dusty Attic 'doily' laser cut chipboard shape inked in 'Weathered Wood' and sprayed with the two sprays, going heavier on the blue. While at the park I picked up a box of 'Vintage Disney' stickers.  I couldn't resist using them on this page and that is where the title came from and the Thumper embellishment.  They were very white and I inked them with 'Tea Dye'. I am just hoping that the ink eventually dries!

I am in love with the Dusty Attic chipboard hinges and I loved that I could use one on here.  This was inked with 'Tea Dye' and sprayed with the two sprays going heavier on the 'Walnut Gold'.  But I found it was too brown and at the very end I painted on extra 'Bell Bottom Jeans' along the edges.

This is a wonderful place to visit and if you are ever heading to Disney Studios in Florida I would recommend booking a lunch at the '50's Prime Time Cafe'.  We loved it so much that we went back a second time.  Now that visit has a longer story that is well worth telling.  I am still trying to find the right papers for those photos as I really want to do them in the pink and blue of the cafe.  Hopefully soon I will find just the right paper and tell you the rest of the story.

I hope you had a great weekend,
Chipper

P.S. if you have been reading about by recipe album project, I received my FIRST recipe via email today from my Great Aunt!  Very, very excited!

Shimelle's Sketch of the Week

Earlier this week I completed a page based on this weeks sketch by Shimelle.  It was wonderful to work with a large photo and The Princess and I enjoyed making the embellishments along the side.  The good old Cricut and Cuttlebug came in very handy for this one.

Black, red and gold are not colours I normally work with, but I like the final effect.  I used gold paint and Creative Imaginations 'Radiant Rain Egyptian Gold' spray.  I have been dieing to use the Ki Memories 'Pop Culture Red Disco Ball' paper and it has never seemed to work with anything.  I love it on here!  It has been lightly inked with 'Distress Ink Black Soot' and sprayed with the gold spray.

I cut the cogs on the Cricut using 'Indie Art' and embossed them using the Tim Holtz 'Retro Circles' folder.  The black at the back we cut from a scrap of black ribbing left over from a sewing project.

Thank you Shimelle for a sketch using a large feature photo.  This is going to make a great title page for our album.

Chipper