Scrap the Girls Challenge

Guess what?! I have scrapped for myself! I have completed the Scrap the Girls January challenge which is a nice easy sketch! Sometimes you need to ease yourself back into the swing of things!

Here is the sketch:

And here is my take on the sketch:

I have kept this one fairly true to the sketch and clean, although I felt it was missing something without ink/mists/stamping!  I have used pretty much just things from a Studio Calico kit I picked up in the Sales in November. And the gorgeous girl in the photos is my little niece Alice, although she is not so little now, but she still has that same beautiful smile.

I also have another page to share, a sketch from back in November, from Stuck?! (I think, it was too long ago and I never finished it in time so it may have evolved!).

Pretty soft colours for a Christmas layout, but loving the gold! And I can't believe how little my two girls were in these photos. For the record, they are about to turn 15 and 13! Here is what they look like now:

Well, that is it for now. Hopefully I will be back soon with some Project Life stuff that I have been finishing off for 2013. Almost a full year complete! Yay!

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!!

More Class Work

Well, I have to say I am absolutely loving the Pop of the Page 2 class over at Studio Calico. I have even kept up with the challenges! But I guess that is because we only have weekly ones instead of one almost every day! So the challenge was to be inspired by something from the third pdf that we received. So this is my result:

I am really pleased with how this one turned out. I was inspired to use some glitter, which is on the tag sticking out and on the wood veneer shapes, and I was inspired for general layout too. Having so much fun layering and adding bits and pieces. Loving these photos too, just look at my little boy, what a little cherub he was. Don't get me wrong, he still is my baby boy, just now he comes up to my armpit and plays World of Tanks with his father rather than being cute and cuddly! Well he still is cuddly!

And can you believe, I have been so inspired by the class and video I even have another layout on the go right now!

Catch you soon.

Katie x

Stuff.

Stuff, it is such a useful word! You own stuff, you have stuff to do, sometimes you just want to do stuff all! Anyway, today I have stuff to share!

Firstly I have a new nephew! That is pretty big stuff! He was born back in April and is such a sweet little thing, so cuddly just like a little koala.

This is Alexander, isn't he just the most gorgeous thing you have seen?!

I have also started another class over at Studio Calico and I have done the first two challenges already as well! The class is Pop off the Page 2 with Jen Jockisch and it is all about layering and building interesting pages. So the first challenge was to lift or be inspired by one of the pages in the first PDF, and the second was to embrace mixed media.

I am having huge fun using my Silhouette too! Especially when there are great cut files that come with the class!

I also have completed another two challenges from the previous class - Bright Ideas. Yes, I know that was back in February, and guess what I am not quite at half way through the challenges. But I plan on doing them all.... eventually!

So these are water colour resist and texture challenges.

This is my water colour resist. I wrote the title with white glue that dried clear, then used mists over the top, blowing with a straw to get the interesting patterns.

This one was to include at least three different textures, even if they were flat textures. So I started with some mask and ink work, layered with papers and embossed cardstock, chipboard in the title, a flair button and a crocheted flower. I think that covered the brief!

So, that's all from me for now. Til next time....

Katie x

Hello... I'm Back!

Geez, you think you are on a good thing, getting things done timely, then it all just goes out the window! Oh well, as they say in the movies, "That's Life"!

But never the less, I am back. Today with some more Studio Calico - Bright Idea inspired pages, and my beginnings into Project Life. I had been scared off by PL with all those people doing weekly spreads. One I just don't have the time and two I don't have the inclination to document like that, so I just wrote it off as not for me. But the more I saw, the more I thought I could adapt it to suit me, and I had tried to do something a little like this years ago before the trend hit (not so organised as this is however, just a summary kind of documention!), and I had "stuff" that I could use, so I thought, why not!

I have decided to do a monthly overview instead of a weekly one, with the option of making more spreads if the month was particularly "busy". I know others are doing this out there, so I know I am no pioneer, nor unique, it just took me a little longer to get there than others! Anyway, enough waffling, the outcome is something the kids love, is easy for me to keep up with, and a great way to have an overview of the year in a simple format! Yay!

So let me share with you my latest tinkerings!

Firstly Bright Ideas # 8 String Art - use string art somehow, somewhere on your page.

I ended up having fun with this, and love the yellow (one of my fav colours right now!).

Bright Ideas # 9 - Washi Tape Takeover - use no patterned paper, use washi instead, cool right?!

What I ended up doing for this one is cover some cardstock in stripes of washi to create my own patterned paper, then I cut tags and other bits and pieces to create my background. My favourite part was the washi feathers that I made (in the close up picture), based on an idea that I pinned and I am not exactly sure where it originally came from, but very very cool!

So next up are my first PL spreads - Dec 2012 and Jan 2013. Nothing amazingly exciting about them, but my start to more regular documenting, and that is what is important!

I quite enjoyed making one photo fit four slots, a great way to get a large photo in! Now that I have played with what I already have on hand, I can feel the need to add to my "stuff" to be better organised!!! Any excuse, right?!

Til next time.

Katie

Something to Share!

Well, I pulled my finger out and made an effort to stop looking at stuff on-line and actually do things that I have been thinking about. The result is a one of a kind cut file for my Cameo and a finished layout from the long finished Bright Ideas class over at Studio Calico! Yay me!

So the challenge for this Bright Ideas task was to create shaped text to somehow include on your page.I decided to do a guitar filled with my own words about Niamh liking to strum her guitar. My favourite part of this page however was the title card that I created and then cut with my Silhouette. (geez I love this machine!). So lets get down to it and play show and tell!

So I drew the card and then scanned it in and finally imported into the Studio software to create my cutting file. Pretty nifty isn't it??!! Well I am pleased even if no one else is! The wonder of being able to include my own handwriting in a title without having to use a craft knife to finish it off! I also cut the musical notes with the Silhouette too, just to finish it all off. All in all something that I am most pleased with!

So, if you like the title card, and have a Silhouette I have decided to let you have a copy of the file! You can find the file here, just please mention me if you do use it, and come back and let me know too so I can see how you used it!

Well, that is enough for today. Although it has spurred me on to go and create some more!

Katie x

Another Pet...

Yes, another pet has entered our household! Erin had her birthday last week and all that she wanted was her very own pet cockatiel, well now she has one! She chose a hand-reared cinnamon pied pearl cockatiel and she is rather sweet. Her name is Pearl, my idea based on her colouring! I had been joking with her that she would have to call her pet bird to be Capn' Jack after Jack Sparrow, but she wouldn't have a bar of that. Well I had to have a giggle when I told her that even though the name Pearl was after her colouring, there also was the ship the Black Pearl in the Pirates movies! So I got my reference after all!!! Funny! So here is the lovely Pearl and her smitten owner!

We are currently getting her used to all of us and being handled, and we seem to be having little achievements every day. So I am sure it won't be too long before Erin will be sitting doing her homework with Pearl on her shoulder, or perhaps trying to eat her pencil!

I have also completed another three challenges from the Studio Calico Bright Ideas class. This class is almost over and I am only up to challenge #7 (out of 22 so far!), but I am not worried. It has all been about getting ideas, trying new things and just generally being inspired to scrap, and that is happening!

So this first one is about the polka dot, making your own no less! So I went for subtle effect and did tone on tone dots on my background, and I also stamped some soft pink spots on my patterned paper.

 

This next one was all about neutrals with a pop of colour. Pretty self evident I dare say! 

 And last but not least, this was an inspired by kind of page. Here is the original image -

I chose initially the colour scheme, and then also played on the squares and circles and even the gold edges. I am quite pleased with how it finished up. Oh and let me just say, I am loving my silhouette!!!

So, that is all for now. Hopefully some more challenges to come, especially as this week has not been quite as hectic as the last couple!

Class Challenge

Well, I did something that I haven't done before! I signed up for an on-line scrapping class! I am currently a "student" of the Bright Ideas class over at Studio Calico, and it consists of almost daily ideas, sketches and inspiration, not to mention the wonderful printable files and cutting files that also came with the class.

So, the class started on Friday (1st Feb) and I have finally finished the first challenge (the second is already up and the third out tomorrow!) set by the talented Amy Tan. The idea was to use paints and masks, whether you created your own mask or used something you already had on hand. I used a crafters workshop template that I already had and followed the sketch that Amy included based on her sample layout. Here is the result!

So, that's all for now. But hopefully this class will keep me creating regularly and I will be in updating more too!