Another Challenge

Well, I think I will have to mark March as a record scrapping month! I now have the March 15th Stuck?! sketch to add to my collection of challenge entries for this month, and I did another layout using some Purple Pumpkin goodies to throw up on their weekly Facebook comp. But I have a feeling things may slow down a little now, I am sure I cannot continue this pace! I do know I need to sit down and start putting some of these pages into albums though. My pile is getting rather large.... OK enough with the chit chat, here is the March 15th sketch from Stuck?!

And here is my take:

Finally playing around with some Basic Grey Picadilly line that has been in my stash for a little too long....

And this is my page for Purple Pumpkin:

This was one of those, thank goodness for cameras in phones moments when I saw this artwork of Liam's hanging up at school. It still makes me smile when I look at it too! So the Purple Pumpkin goodies on this one are the cute but large button, the ticket and the twine. This size button (the XL) is the newest size to the store.

Thanks for stopping by, until next time!

Stuck?! March 1st

Well, I have completed another challenge! This time I have gone with the March 1st sketch over at Stuck?!, and lucky for me they have just recently put up the second sketch for the month to give me something more to work on! So here is the sketch:

And here is my interpretation:

Finally getting around to playing with the gorgeous Random collection from Crate Paper (only been sitting there for a few months!!). I have also been playing around with all the cool photo effect apps that I can get for my tablet, loving being able to send them over the wi-fi to our printer too!

Well, that's all for now. Off to think about the next sketch....

March Challenges

Well, I am in early this month for my usual challenges! Yay me! I have done 5 challenges already! Yes you read correctly, I did say 5!

White With One - White + Kraft + Layering

Kraft It Up:
1 piece of Kraft cardstock (or patterned kraft)
2 photos of any size
3 word title
4 different patterned papers
5 different embellishments

OK, numbers 1 - 4 are pretty obvious, but thought I would point out the 5 embellishments! Die-cut butterfly, twine, button, photo corner and border sticker, there, that was easy!

Scrap the Boys - "Life is Good" for title + red + handwritten journaling

Scrap the Girls - Celebrations

Purple Pumpkin - sketch

So there you have it, 5 challenges down, now to find some more!! Either that or I have done my dash for a while lol..... Although, I have just got some more Purple Pumpkin goodies and they are doing a weekly kind of challenge on Facebook......

See Ya!

I'm back....

And I managed to finish that layout off, but then re-read the criteria and discovered I forgot some! Never mind, a layout done is a layout done and I do like what I finished with!

This was going to be for Scrap the Girls, but I forgot to add chipboard and put "Love" in the title. The other criteria was turquoise as the dominant colour, I chose a dirty turquoise!

But, I put my scrap gear on and did manage to get another page done as well as finish this one! I completed the White with 1 Feb challenge, which was:

White + Lemon + 3 Photos

With this page I got to play around with my new Hero Arts zig-zag stamp, which I used on the background, otherwise a fairly simple page, but the yellow really makes things pop!

OK, that is me over and out for a little while now! I guess it is time to bring on the March challenges!!! Hopefully I will read them a little better next time....

February Challenge....Just made it!

Well, nothing like leaving things to the last minute! I have managed to get the Scrap the Boys February sketch challenge done, and photographed and loaded! I also have the Scrap the Girls Feb challenge 75% done, so hopefully I can finish that off today and load as well.

So this is the Scrap the Boys sketch for Feb:

And this is my interpretation:

As you can see I kind of rotated and flipped the sketch to suit. A fairly clean and simple page, the most exciting part for me was trying out my new banner die from My Favourite Things, and creating the background with a Crafters Workshop template and distress ink, lots of fun!!

And I also have a layout that was just because! This one uses a picture taken at the "Dot Room" in GOMA over the school holidays. Now if you have been you know what I am talking about! It was a completely white room where the kids were given a sheet of colourful circle stickers as they entered with free reign to put them where ever they wanted! A lot of fun and I tried to capture that in my layout, and I have to say it is one of my all time favourites (at the moment!!).

I have also been playing around with my own buttons again. I have some of the flat back self cover ones to create my own matching buttons (very addictive, let me tell you, but that is another story!), and I decided to have a play around and came up with these:

I am stoked with how they turned out! Especially the text ones. All I have done is stamp with stayz-on ink onto calico fabric and used that to cover the button, and the blue one uses some thinner craft felt. The stamps that I have used are Hero Arts Friends definition and a Stampin' Up French Script background. I am hanging out for the new Hero Arts newsprint stamp to try now as well!! So cool! And maybe I now need some more colours of stayz-on ink too!!!

So that's it for now, but perhaps I will be back later with one last Feb challenge page!!

Back to School Photos

So, here I am back with the first day of school photos, just in time for finishing week 3!! Nothing like rushing these things!

Well, I know that Niamh is going to hate the fact that I have put this up, but oh well! She looks annoyed because her friend had just arrived to collect her and I was making her late! Like smiling for one second was a major time event..... ahhh teenagers, what can you do with them?! But apart from that, Niamh has settled into high school without drama (excluding the usual hormonal drama that is, as that is ongoing unfortunately...)

Erin, always happy to be back at school, and now being the eldest there, I am sure feeling pretty good about things! Erin has gone into grade 6 and is over the moon to be back in a class with her best friends!

And lastly my littlest one. Well he really isn't that little, but I need to hold onto the idea... Liam has started grade 2 and is already sneaking in his physics books to show the class at "show and tell" time! Only grade 2 but he is already using terms like "fempto seconds" and blowing us all away!

So, haven't done much else lately. Been too hot and humid to think, but I am hoping to get back into some crafting this weekend!

Until next time....

Welcome 2012... even if it is almost a month late!

I know, I know, we rang in the new year almost a month ago! But, well, I have been doing other stuff so I haven't been on here so much! But that is OK, kids are back at school now and routine is coming back and I am having time to do things for myself! Yay! That includes being creative! Double Yay!!!

So just in the nick of time I have some monthly challenges to put up and then link over to the respective challenge blogs....

First of all - Kraft it Up, this challenge was a colour scheme with kraft of course.A nice bright summery colour scheme!

I have been playing around making my own masks lately too. This one I used my Cricut and the Paper Lace cartridge and some transparency material, worked a treat! I also "acquired" a doily die (a Cheery Lynn one) and all I can say is it is gorgeous!

Next, White with One: White + Lime + Buttons

Again playing with my own masks (the doily like one), also did some stamping with a great background stamp and then coloured with copics, and only one button!

Scrap the Boys - Favourite summer holiday past times.....

Loving the orange and yellow hues at the moment! So bright and fun.

And last but not least, Scrap the Girls - Monochromatic

I love how this one turned out! And see the bookpaper flower?! That was a doily cut using my new die, makes a beautiful flower I think! All the little flowers are ones I have made from clay too, they look so cute and are so easy to do!

So, I do have one more layout to add. This one is a special one, and probably part of the reason I didn't get up to much over the holidays. I lost my "grumpy old man" fur baby just after new years. It wasn't so much a surprise, but still a very sad time and I still keep thinking about him. Chookie has been with me (mostly) since about January 1993 when I brought him home from the pet shop on a whim. And to put it in perspective, I met Andrew in April 1993, so Chookie has been with me longer than my husband (but only just). All the kids were sad to see Chookie gone, but he got a lot of attention in his last days and plenty of photos too. I made sure to take photos of the kids with him, I just forgot to take any of me with him and that makes me a little sad. But I am lucky to have photos of him over the years so I will always be able to remember him. So this page is dedicated to our "grumpy old man" (he was equivalent to about 100 in human years, 19 calendar years) and the joy he brought to our lives...

I will be back soon with some "First day of school" photos too. That was last week and all are settling in well. I am now the mother of a High School student, but I will deny this if you ask me!! Niamh is settling in really well at high school and I think she was more than ready for this transition.

Until next time,

Katie