New Inspiration Board at D'Lish Scraps

First of all I would like to say thank you to Amanda for having me on for another three month stint at D'Lish with the creative team! This also means I have another sample for the new board.

This month the board is "All that Glitters", very pretty and so on trend right now!

So, for my page, I was inspired by the sketch, the iPhone case and the washi tape, and of course the gold! And here is what I came up with!

I used the following products from the D'Lish store:

Freckled Fawn woodchips - Birds (music notes in this pack too!)

Metal Photo Corners - gold (which I cut in half to sit flat on my page)

Foil Doiley - gold

Journal It's - spool top sentiments in kraft

Motex Writer and black tape

From the "Just Add Paper Kit" - flair, bow, flower, scallop glitter tape, glitter canvas tape (behind the chipboard star)

The background paper was just perfect to mimic the phone case, and the right colour too! (not quite gold but close enough!) Then splashes of gold and black around the place help to finish off. I also used my Wink of Stella gold pen to colour the music notes and the little birdie. So easy! So off you go, time to play with "all that glitters", head over to D'Lish for even more inspiration from the other creative team members!! I hope to be checking out your work very soon!

Katie x

White With One December

Can you believe it is December already?! I am trying to shield myself from it, but I don't think it is working! Oh well, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em I guess!

Good news for being a new month though! More scrappy challenges to do. WW1 this month is Banana, quite appropriate for summer in Oz! We were also lucky enough to have some "A Lil Something" flair to play with too. So here is my sample -

I had so much fun experimenting with this page! I laid down some paint and with a steady hand and a paintbrush full of white Mr Huey's I "wrote" the word family all over the background. Then to finish off I got a black pen and doodled! A few other bits and pieces and hey presto a completed page!

So, now it is your turn! Head over to WW1 to get even more inspiration and even some printable digi files to help you along!

Katie x

New Inspiration Board at D'Lish Scraps!

Well the new month means a new inspiration board at D'Lish. If the last one was a bit full on for you I am sure you will love this one! This month the board is called - Out to Sea - and it looks like this:

Lots of interesting ideas there! Rope. knots, anchors, banners, word art, not to mention the classic red/navy/white colour scheme! Here is what I came up with:

I went with the nautical theme, but in a different way. We have a park nearby to us which has a big ship to play on, and I just so happened to have some photos of my Erin playing on said boat! Perfect starting point! I also loved the colours, and started with the sketch and went from there. Be sure to check out all the other great samples here to get even more ideas.

On my page I have used the following items from D'Lish:

Sequin Grab Bag

Chevron Paper Bags

Glitter Tape - red

Journal It - date

Large Anchor charm

Red/Blue dots washi tape

Red Monochrome Flair

Wooden Bingo Numbers

Make sure you go and check it out for yourselves!

Katie x

White With 1 November is Blueberry!

Feeling in need of a scrappy challenge?! Check out WW1 this month for a double whammy challenge! This month we combined forces with Creative Scrappers and used a sketch from them to create our samples. If you use the sketch to do your WW1 page you can enter both challenges this month! How cool is that?! Oh and we also got to play with some cool bits and bobs from Charms Creations, very cool!

So here is the sketch:

The colour is Blueberry with your White, and here is my sample:

So what are you waiting for? Head on over now and check out all the other inspiration!

Katie x

Scrap the Boys

Well, despite the madness I have managed to create another page for another challenge! Truthfully, I think being able to do this amongst the craziness helped to calm my mind! So, as you can probably guess by the post title, the challenge I completed was for Scrap the Boys. This month was a nice easy challenge too, just what the doctor ordered! The challenge was a colour challenge - Blue and Green - easy! So here is my result:

I have had fun playing with some new Dylusions mists, stamps, paint and creating subway art on my Silhouette! Quite pleased with the way that turned out!

That's it for now. Maybe, just maybe I will be able to get myself organised to finish off another challenge before the month is out! Will see what time I have after I upload and edit my wedding photos!

Thanks for stopping by.

Katie x

Busy, busy, busy!

That is my life right now! Between school activities and Kindy photo shoots, not to mention getting my tax sorted my life is hectic to say the least! I have been doing my required scrapping, which will be shared at the beginning of next month, but I have also been feeling the need to do some other scrapping!

Well, I have managed to throw together an entry for the Scrap the Girls October challenge. The challenge this month was a puzzle with the following to be included:

Hexagon

Squiggle

Circle

Rectangle 

Strips

So here is my take:

My circles are the sequins, the amazing die cut and there are some stencil circles in texture paste on the background. The rectangle is the large rectangle behind the photo using the triangle patterned paper. The strips are the patterned paper strips behind the photo, the hexagons are stenciled in texture paste on the background (and not very obvious!) and last of all the squiggle is the border drawn around the photo. Phew, it was harder than I thought to include everything!

Just a quick page, and something to help me wind down during a busy time, and hopefully I may get time to do another before the month is out! Although finding time between weddings, kindy's and camping could be interesting!

If you do have time, check out the WW1 challenge for October - White with Watermelon or the great Neon Pop inspiration board over at D'Lish Scraps!

Thanks for stopping by!

Katie x

Neon Pop

That is the name of the new inspiration board over at D'Lish Scraps, and it is as bright as it sounds!

So, there are plenty of interesting bits and bobs to inspire you on this board apart from the colour! I have to admit I was a little scared of this one at first, but I love how my page turned out.

I think most of my inspiration came from the cake, the colour on the black, and my page also loosely uses the sketch too (and there are those frame stamps again!). So much fun to go bright, bright , bright! Oh and do you like the way I used the motex tape to make my photo frames?!

Don't forget about the kits to go with the board if you are stuck for neon in your stash, they are fab!

On my page I have used the following products from the D'Lish store:

Mini Pegs

Live Laugh Love Charm

Neon Hearts - grab bag

Hot Pink Sequins

Shabby Chiffon Rose Trim - Orange

Sequin Bow - Hot Pink

Medium Polka Dot Buttons - Hot Pink, Orange, Yellow

Polka Dot Buttons - Green, Blue

Motex Tape Refill - Fluoro Pink and Fluoro Yellow

Can't wait to see your pages inspired by the Neon Pop board!

Katie x

White with 1

Well, October already! This marks the beginning of my time on the WW1 creative team! So very exciting. This month the colour is white + watermelon, a good summery colour and given our mini heat wave last week it already feels like summer too.

The creative team was also lucky enough to get some gorgeous chipboard from 2 Crafty, who also are sponsoring one of the prizes for the month. So, here is my sample to get your creative juices flowing!

I created my own background for this one using some frame stamps that I have recently acquired! So what are you waiting for, time to get your watermelon out of your stash and onto a page!

Thanks for stopping by!

Katie x

Scrap the Girls

Well, it might seem that I have not been very active lately, but I have, I promise! I just can't share it with you just yet! But as we are almost at the end of the month there is not too much more of a wait! But besides my "required duties" I have managed to get the Scrap the Girls challenge completed, and uploaded just in the nick of time.

This month the challenge was based on a colour combo:

Great colours aren't they?! Well I thought so, I think that it helps that I am loving orange (and yellow) at the moment. So here is my page inspired by these colours:

A bit of everything in this page!  A bit of paint, a bit of ink, a bit of die cutting, a bit of mists, a bit of layering, well you get the idea!

So that is it from me for now. But stay tuned for the new month when I get to share some stuff!

Katie x

White With One

OK, back again so soon! I tell you, you have to take advantage of the creative juices when they are flowing or they dry up! So, I have completed the WW1 September challenge, just as I promised! If you remember the criteria was white + pistachio.

And this is what I came up with. Who knew I had so much "pistachio" green in my stash! Add a little black for contrast and of course white and hey presto!

I will have to go and have a look for another challenge now! We are only half way through the month after all!!

Katie x

Scrap the Boys Challenge

Well, the last couple of weeks have been absolutely crazy! Finally I have been able to sit down and start chillaxing and crafting! I grabbed one of my outdoor shots of Liam and joined in over at Scrap the Boys. That is all the criteria this month, too easy! We all have outdoor photos of our boys so why don't you join in too?!

There is a bit of everything in this page! Mists, stamping, die cuts, stickers! Lots of fun!

Even though I am not officially "on duty" until next month, I am still working on the White with 1 September challenge of White with Pistachio, which is a lovely shade of green! Remember too that if you enter this month you get a gift for your trouble, so it makes it even more worthwhile! Keep a look out, I hope to have my page finished soon.

And to finish off, here is my baby boy (ok he is not really a baby any more...), celebrating his 9th birthday with family. Isn't he a handsome devil, takes after his father!!

Thanks for stopping by, until next time.

Katie x

More News!

Here I am back again so soon! But, now that the cat is officially out of the bag I needed to share some more news... I am on the new White with 1 creative team! I have been holding onto the news for a little while and at times it was hard! So make sure you come and check out WW1 regularly to see what cool things are going down, and there is lots planned too. My official duties don't start until October, but I will be playing along this month too.

Also, I can now share my Purple Pumpkin guest design spot page. I was given the sketch a couple of weeks ago (now up at PP) and I created my version of the sketch using some of my PP goodies. So here is the sketch -

 

And here is my take on the sketch -

The Purple Pumpkin goodies that I have used are - White ticket, spotty button, chick button, small heart button and satin flower. I created the background by mixing some Mr Huey's mist in with some texture paste and using with a Studio Calico mask.

And last for today, the September Inspiration Mood Board is up over at D'Lish Scraps and is ready for you to be inspired! It is a wonderful board full of summery citrus colours, a sketch and many other bits and pieces of inspiration! Don't forget to enter the challenge too, there are great prizes up for grabs! So here is the board -

And this is my page inspired by the board -

I was inspired by the colours, as you can probably guess! I love working with a white background and these fresh colours just work so well with the white. From the D'Lish store I have used the following bits and pieces:

Loose Sequin Mix - blossom

Lime Retro Dot washi tape

Motex Writer

Fluoro Green motex tape

Wooden Asterix button

Wood Veneer Heart

Freckled Fawn Dew Drops - arrows

Freckled Fawn Enamel Dots - black/white/grey

Journal It's - mini notes - cream,

Jouranl It's - sassy spots

A cool trick with the Motex Writer - after embossing your word/sentence/date gently swipe a black stayz-on ink pad over the top to make the writing stand out a little more! Also the tape doesn't have to be written on, use it like little flags or banners to add pops of colour to your page.

Well, thanks for dropping by to share all my news! Until next time.

Katie x

Last Minute Entry...

Nothing like leaving things until the last minute is there?! I managed to get another challenge completed this week, despite the crazy week that it has been, and I even photographed it this morning, and let me tell you I am so glad I did take the time to photograph it then. See, today has been all hands on deck at the kids school fete! I have been at the school from 9am this morning until about 5pm this afternoon. Where upon I came home, showered and proceeded to cook dinner for our usual family of 5 plus 3 extra friends before racing out to watch the fireworks!

Now, with extras delivered back to their own homes and my own getting themselves ready for bed I have five minutes to myself.... ahhh the serenity! So before popping on a movie to unwind, I thought I would get back to that page that I had the foresight to photograph earlier and load it up!

The challenge that I decided to do was for Scrap the Boys, and the criteria was - monochromatic + chipboard + twine, and as I had some new photos of my boy I thought it was a good one to do! So here it is:

So you can probably guess I chose green! I wanted to create a watercolour effect background, which I did using some mowed lawn distress ink on my work surface, misted with lots of water and then swiping my background cardstock through the misted ink. It worked wonderfully! I then inked some more with stencils and stamps before adding the other bits and pieces. Oh, and I would just like to say that I love this photo of Liam! Such a cheeky little one and this seemed to capture him perfectly!

Well, that is it for tonight! So good bye from me.....

Katie x

Crazy Times and Exciting News!

Well, once again the days turn into weeks and the weeks almost into another month! This time of year is one of our busiest with many family birthdays, school fete, fathers day and also photo work, so I can honestly say I am starting to feel a little like a headless chook!

But I am trying to find some down time where ever I can to relax and scrap, some weeks it is harder than others, but I can't complain too much!

So, now for the exciting news! I have a place on the D'Lish Spring Creative Team! Yay me! Very exciting as I have been buying a fair bit of cool little bits and pieces from there recently! So keep an eye out on the Blog and FB page for the challenge to come out in September!

I have been lucky enough to win a few challenges lately too! A couple over at WWI and last months sketch over at Purple Pumpkin. I am now in the process of creating my page for their September sketch using my new PP goodies for their guest designer spot!

Speaking of WW1, I have managed to complete the August challenge, with a few days to spare! This month the challenge was White + Pastels + Masking, pastels was the only hard part!

I also have a page that didn't get completed in time for last month! It was based on one of the monthly sketches over at Stuck?!

I am hoping to perhaps get one more challenge in this month?! Maybe..... but who knows!

Anyway, until next time!

Katie x

Purple Pumpkin July Challenge

I have had a nice quiet day today, and I took the opportunity to complete another challenge before the month closes out. I decided a nice gentle challenge would be in order so went with the sketch challenge over at Purple Pumpkin. So firstly here is the sketch:

And this is my take on the sketch, with some of my Purple Pumpkin stash put to good use as well!

I also have been playing some more with the Inked techniques from the end of the Studio Calico class. I have made a layout using the repeating of a small stamped image technique, some project life cards using layered stamping and resist and lastly some little labels using kissing and watercolour techniques. Lots of fun to be able to play and whip up a little card to use later.

Well, short and sweet today. Hoping to get one more challenge done before July runs out, but will see how I go!

Catch you soon,

Katie x

Week from hell...

Not the week just gone, but the one before that! That was the week that I was called by the school to collect Erin because she had hurt herself at athletics day, to turn up and find out she couldn't walk, to then take her to the hospital to find out she had a fracture in her tibia bone! A few hours later and we are home with a full leg cast and all the fun that encompasses!

The good news is (one MRI and visit to an Orthopedic Surgeon later), the cast should come off in just a few weeks, and the fracture should heal ok. The bad news is, the fracture went near to the growth plate and we don't know if it has been affected. Worst case scenario is growth plate in that area won't grow and her leg may start to grow crooked, but we are hoping for best case, which is that it hasn't been effected at all!

A sad and sorry Erin, just after they put the cast on. Actually I think the look is more for the fact that Mum is taking a photo of the whole ordeal!

So the past 10 days have revolved around hospitals, doctors, and many trips between school to drop off different children at different times and then the same at the end of the day! The one thing keeping me going is Andrew and my upcoming trip to Melbourne! We are off on a long weekend next weekend by ourselves and I can't wait!

In the meantime, I have had a little time to sit at my desk and pull something together. I have been continuing to have fun with my Inked class over at Studio Calico. The great thing with this is I can sit for 10 minutes and just play with a new technique and then move on to something else. An excellent way to chill for a bit during the craziness that is my life at the moment.

I did finish a page for the White with One challenge, which is: White + Navy + Arrows

Played around with one of my newly created masks and some distress ink and texture past and the new Mr Huey's navy mist. A fairly clean and simple page, but I like it! Not to mention I have finally scrapped this family photo (only 2 years later...).

Well, that is about it from me for now. Catch you later.

Katie x

Inking and more...

Well I can truly say that I have re-discovered my stamps and accessories and I am loving every moment! The Inked class over at Studio Calico has just wrapped up its second week and we are about to begin week number 3, wow that is disappearing fast! This week saw us playing with heat embossing, water colour stamping, ombre stamping, chalkboard effect and stitching to accent our stamped images. I have played with all but the stitching technique, hopefully I will get to that one this week!

So, to show and tell with my playing! I have a layout which incorporates embossing and water colour stamping. The zig zag patterned was stamped onto paper that was coloured in an ombre fashion with distress inks, the background yellow dots are using distress ink like water colours, the big butterfly was inked up with distress inks and misted before being stamped and the dotty velum circles are embossed with copper zing. Lots of stamping on this page! Oh, and can you believe that is me as a little one??!!

This next card uses the same zig zag stamp (a very cool stamp!), and five different distress inks to create an ombre effect. I think I will be using this technique a fair bit more now, I just love the result!

Oh, and my class kit stamps arrived this week too!! Yay!! Next I have made some project life style cards using the chalkboard effect with white embossing on black/dark background.

The frame card was inspired by some of the new MME (I think!) that was revealed this week for CHA. That got me thinking too about creating chalkboard frames and so I made these:

All good fun!! I have also managed to do one July challenge for Scrap the Boys. The requirement was to scrap a black and white head shot of your boy/man. I chose one of Liam that I had lying around, and is so typical of his quirky personality!

Well, I think that is all from me for now! See you next time.

Katie x

Hello July!

Well, the second week of the school holidays flew by in a flurry of activity. It is amazing what some wet weather can do to dampen enthusiasm for leaving the house. The first week of holidays was wet from about Wednesday through to Sunday. Not much to do but stay at home and keep warm and dry! The second week however was different! Sunny skies and activities to entertain.

We saw World War Z with Georgie and her boys. Oh my, I was starting to regret that movie choice about 20 minutes into the film! Tense, very very tense! But now that I have had time to recover, I could actually see it again! In fact Niamh did go back and see it again with another friend, this time in 3D! Apparently even though she knew it was coming it was worse in 3D!! So very glad we didn't do 3D the first time around! Erin and I are now reading the book the movie was based on.

In a more calm moment we saw Monsters University. It was ok, not as good as the first, still had some laughs, but maybe too sedate after the zombies!! The company was excellent however as was the sushi lunch afterwards!

Rounding out the week we went off to the city and met up with my Mum, had some lunch, did some looking and then came home via the dentist for Niamh's next braces check up. Not long now and they will be off! She even wants to do family photos once they are off!! There is an opportunity not to miss.

During the week I also started Inked over at Studio Calico. So far I have been digging through my stamps and deciding that I just don't have enough of the "right" stamps! I have remedied this by ordering some more! Oh and I just found out that I was one of the June winners over at White With One! Yay me! Guess what I will be purchasing with that win??!!Hmm stamps perhaps??!!

So, back to Inked, besides realising that I need more stamps, I have been playing, a lot! Pulling out inks, stickles, glossy accents, glitter glues and even my old Tombow pens. I have really enjoyed playing too. So here are the results of my playing, some cards and project life type 3x4 cards.

These cards have used the following techniques: Stamping with markers, dressing up stamped images with glossy accents, glitter etc, manipulating a stamp. That last one is my favourite, that card is the sun one. It started out as a straight line banner stamp that I "manipulated" into a circle and stamped once with yellow, then offset and stamped again with orange. The message inside is also a straight line stamp. Pretty cool hey?!

These cards also have stamping with markers, glitter/glossy accents and also stamping on patterned paper.

I am looking forward to the next installment of techniques, and for my new stamps (including the class ones) to arrive!!

I have also completed a layout in this past week. A just because page, playing with the new masks that I had made the week before and using up older paper lines. A very boy page!

 Well, that is it for now. Hopefully with kids back at school and some time to myself I can get on and do some more crafting this week!

Katie x

More?!

Well, I am back with yet another challenge! Just as well as the month is all but over! This time I have completed Stuck?! Sketches June 15 challenge, which is a sketch if you hadn't guessed!

And this is my interpretation:

This one is a little different for me, and I like it, but not sure that I love it, but it is growing on me! I decided to use up some of my hoard of 7Gypsies papers (and they have been sitting there a long time!), and I also experimented with a technique that I saw on Wilna Furstenberg's blog, where she did some water colour resist with glaze, masks and gelato's and now since I have all of those things it was time to try it out!

I have been playing with masking material in my Silhouette again. We have some front covers for document binding lying around so I thought I would give that a go. The packaging says it is 200 microns thick, which makes it of simialr thickness to the Tim Holtz masking material, just without the "sticky back", but that is what washi tape is for! It cut beautifully, on the same settings that I used before, but I upped the speed (speed 2, thickness 33 and blade 8 and double cut). I am really pleased with this material, and it is easy to get too! I think it is a little thicker than transparency material. So here are the two masks that I cut this time, both about 5" x 5" in size:

 So, that is all from me for now. Maybe I will try to get one more challenge in before June is out! Then when July hits I will be doing another Studio Calico class, called Inked! Can't wait for that one to start!!

Another Challenge completed!

Just tearing along this week! Really feeling quite inspired to create, not to mention having time to do so! I love school holidays!

I have been doing some more playing around with my Silhouette. I bought some sketch pens a while ago and haven't got around to trying them out until this week. Well, I have just ordered myself some more, so I think that might sum up my opinion on them! The set I bought was the metallic one with gold, silver, bronze and white. My thinking was some cool effects with white on dark, but wouldn't you know it, the white pen just doesn't work! I have tried and tried, and maybe I will try some more, but I don't think it is going to ever work. Oh well, the others do and look pretty fab!

So of course I have a picture of my "playing"! I have used the gold and bronze pens, and two project life style journalling cards from the Silhouette shop. The trick is to turn off the cut lines for the outside cuts while you write and then turn the writing off to cut the outside, oh and don't unload the cutting mat in between!

Looks pretty cool doesn't it?! The small writing is at about 12pt and is just Arial, the other I can't remember which font, but it is at something like 24pt. I think this can be a great way to add some details to project life!

So apart from that I have completed another challenge. This time for Kraft It Up, this months challange was to create a "project life" style page with at least three photos and journalling about the week in June from which you took the the photos. Not as easy as it sounds, even though I am doing this kind of project on a monthly basis! Anyway, this is what I came up with...

Playing with lots of things, like my new washi stash, stamps and of course the Silhouette!

This next page is one that came together really quickly, and I love it! I didn't think, or should I say over think things too much and it just all came together! I have used the triangle mask that I made and showed in the previous post together with some Mr Huey's shell coloured mist, a great neutral kind of colour. Loving the motex labeller too!

So, that is it for now. I just recieved an order of some new goodies and I am hoping to play with them today, so maybe I will be back soon with some more playing! Playing is fun!

Til next time,

Katie x

Playing and Creating

Well, it has been a nice relaxing start to the holidays so far. Sunday we took the kids to see Despicable Me 2 in Gold Class no less! Lucky they have some great family deals for early sessions. The kids loved the luxury, I just hope they don't expect that treatment every time we go to the movies!

The kids have also been hard at work in the garden helping to clean up one of our "problem" areas. The $10 per hour I am sure was the biggest incentive!! We have now got rid of most of the weeds in this area and we are just about ready to dig in an edging and then lay the weed mat so we can put down some pebbles. Still a lot of work to do, and I think I will be shelling out a few dollars, but still cheaper than getting someone else in to do the job!

Apart from that, I have even had time to sit at my desk and play! And I mean play too! I had some old Cricut stencil material laying around that I wanted to experiment with in my Silhouette to make some new masks. Well I did just that. The Cricut stencil material is quite thick and I wasn't sure that it would cut so I tried with a reasonably simple design of triangles. The result is pretty cool, even if I did have to manually "pop" each of the triangles out! So the moral of the story is it does cut and I may need to try with some other settings, but the thick material makes it a little hard. I also then remembered that I also had some Tim Holtz mask material laying around (so much stuff so little time!!) so I tried that too! I used the same settings (speed 1, thickness 33, blade 8 and double cut) and it cut beautifully! I knew the settings were perfect too as it only cut the mask material and not the backing sheet on the mask too. When I took it out it just peeled off the cutting mat, leaving the leftover bits and backing sheet behind!

 

This is the Cricut stencil material. The backing on this is very sticky, so you can see all the fibres through this from me trying to "de-stick" it a little! Otherwise it has turned out pretty well.

These two are the Tim Holtz mask material results. This cut so well, and I think I will be getting myself some more of this to make some more masks!

So now I needed to play with these new masks! So far I have only one finished layout to show the results of my masking experiment. But I do have another one in the works!

So I used the flower mask with some texture paste, then painted it with Mr Huey's mists. I also painted some gesso over the background and painted some gold Mr Huey's in random places and stamped and then layered some cool new text washi tape. A simple page, but it needed to be with all the colours and business in the photos. Loving my motex tape writer too!!

Well, that's it for now. I have been playing around with some other stuff so hopefully will be back soon with that!