October Challenge at Charms Creations

Charms Creations has a great challenge up for October! It is a pretty mood board put together by the lovely Sandra.



Isn't the colour palette just so pretty?! So the page that I came up with is this:

I found some papers in roughly the right colours that I layered and mounted my photo on and used some gorgeous Lindy's Stamp Gang magicals to create some watercolour that I added to my background. Then for something different (and after being inspired by a you tube video!) I created some of my own perfectly matching die cuts!

This star was a perfect match for the colour palette. You can find the stars here in the shop. The die cut flowers are files from Wilna Furstenburg, and I coloured these in photoshop and then did a print and cut option with my Silhouette.

The terrific tabs are one of my favourite new additions to the store. This one is a diy one that I coloured using the same as on my background.

And the title die cut, another diy job! This one created directly in the Silhouette software and perfectly coordinated!

I hope you have a go at this months challenge too! There is a great prize up for grabs.

Thanks for stopping by.

Katie x

Mid Monthly Challenge for Charms Creations

Holidays! Lazy mornings and relaxed days, that is what is happening in our house right now and I am loving every moment of it! That and being able to sit at my desk all day (should I choose to of course!) is a luxury that I am taking while I can.

Now if you have the luxury of being able to scrap then you need to check out the Charms Creations mid monthly challenge. This time around it is a tic-tac-toe challenge which makes it a fun one to do, and do again even if you feel like it!

 

 I decided to go the diagonal starting at the bottom left corner - Glitter/Something New/Mini Prints.

I used glitter washi tape, new Charms Creations noughts and crosses and some smaller 3x4 prints to complete my page. I love how it came together and I love these out take photos of my family!

For some extra glitter I also added some gold glitter enamel hearts to the centres of some of my O's in the cut out piece. I created this cut out piece in Silhouette Studio, very easy, just needed to decide the best font! And the X's and O's left over were used too.

I decided to use this special O with the cute button as a letter O in the title, the rest of the letters I simply drew onto cardstock and cut out then outlined with a white gel pen to look like the fabric one.

I just had to add another X and O to represent hugs and kisses for my family! Now make sure you head over to the shop and get yourself some of these great new shapes and have a go at the challenge too!

Thanks for stopping by,

Katie x

Charms Creations - Mid Month Challenge

Have you checked out the mid month challenge over at the Charms Creations FB group? It is a great one, all you need to do is be inspired by this board:



And who wouldn't be?! All those pretty butterflies and colours, and the gorgeous new Charms Creations that include printed wood veneer butterflies just finish the job off.

So this is what I came up with:

 I found some perfect paper in my collection, from Studio Calico's Print Shop collection. The colours and even some butterfly paper were a perfect match. I also found some die cut butterflies from some Crate Paper and Studio Calico collections I had in my stash. I was pretty set!

Check out the title! Pretty sweet isn't it?! I have been playing with foiling and I think that I am in love! I am using the laser printer and laminator method and it works a treat (check out Jennifer McGuire's you tube videos if you want to see how it works). I even took it up a notch and did the title as a print and cut from my Silhouette software. So pretty!

Add in a few pretties to make a little cluster. Can you spy the D-lish goodies? The paper flower, Pink Fresh Studio chevron wood drop and coloured doily.

How gorgeous is this butterfly lollipop from Charms Creations. I just love that I could add a touch of orange to my page with this. I also used some punched out butterflies from the paper with some glass cabochons from D-lish Scraps to make some great extra embellishments.

Isn't this die cut butterfly the perfect addition?!  The colours and everything!

Throw in a few sequins and finish the page off! Sequins are a great way to add something extra to your page.

So that is my take on the mid month challenge. Why don't you have a go! Check out the shop here too if you want your very own Charms Creations with a pretty butterfly.

Thanks for stopping by,

Katie x

Charm's Creations Mid Month Challenge

So, now that my page has been revealed in the FB group I can share it with you all here too!

So in case you don't remember here is the challenge:




And here is what I created:

I decided to make a cut file for my silhouette using the quote and use that as the feature of my page. The idea was inspired by a page by Wilna Furstenberg, she always inspires me!

So if you want to join in on the challenge make sure you head over to the FB group - here, and we will be giving you a link so you can download this cut file to use yourself. Also in the link is a png (digital stamp) version and a 4x6 journal card for printing. 

Happy Scrapping!

Thanks for stopping by and see you next time.

Katie x

Second Post for Imaginarium Designs

So, half way through November already. Just crazy really! It is always like this at this time of the year so I shouldn't be surprised but it always is exhausting.

Thought I would just pop in and share my next post that is up over at Imaginarium Designs, you can see the whole post here. Also they are having a Design Team call if you love working with all kinds of cool chipboard. It closes on 30th November and details are on their blog.

I think this is one of my favourite pages that I have created so far.

I added little seed beads to the chipboard to give the feeling of the foam and bubbles on the waves, love how it turned out!

And I had a ball creating the title with the drawing and cutting features on my Silhouette. So much fun!

Thanks for stopping by,

Katie x

Scrap the Boys October

Well, school holidays have finished and we are in the downhill run to the end of the year. It is hard to believe we are approaching the end of another year. I swear this one has gone by even faster than previous ones!

I managed to steal some time to myself at the end of the break to sit at my desk and play, and my go to place to start is one of the great challenge blogs that we have out there. Scrap the Boys caught my attention because the theme for the month is - Technology Savvy. And since my Liam bought himself an iPad mini with his birthday money and has been obsessed ever since I thought that was the perfect story!

So here is my finished page:

I have been having a great time playing with my Silhouette lately, more to come on that later, and decided to grab an apple logo and title to trace and cut for my title. Turned out pretty well, and it was a great finish to the page! There is also a little bit of D'lish goodies on there too, the flair, twine, star button and today tab. It is always easy to add a little bit of something from D'lish!!

Here are a couple of close ups too:

I also played with a new stencil, plus signs (I think it is called positive), a Kaiser Craft one. I used some pumice stone distress ink to give a subtle background and not overwhelm the papers.

Anyway, that is all for now.

Thanks for stopping by.

Katie x

Challenge 8

Well, technically we are way past the due date for this to be included in the competition, but I finished it and thought I would share it anyway!

This challenge was a technique challenge and that technique was using plastic to paint with. Now, lucky for me, this is something I have come across before, have tried and love using!

What I did do was play around with the technique! I proceeded as demonstrated in the challenge, by first wetting the background cardstock and then adding my paint (in this case a Mr Huey's mist sprayed directly onto the plastic) onto the background. Then after this dried, I sprayed some more mist onto the same plastic, which was "crumpled" in my hand and "painted" some more colour on. Without the damp background this second layer came out a little more defined and darker adding some interest and texture! I also stamped and inked a stencil onto the background for further "layers". So that's enough talking, here is the finished product:

Again I did use some D'Lish products on my page. Freckled Fawn glitter arrow, Chalkboard tab and a kraft bitty bag. I also played around with the Kal Barteski's font on my silhouette to cut the title.

Oh, and speaking of challenges, I was lucky enough to win Challenge 7, Wendy's colour challenge for my page with Liam and his lego head! Thanks Amanda and team!

Katie x

Scrap the Girls and Stuck?!

Back again! Today I am bringing you the pages that I completed for the Scrap the Girls and Stuck?! Sketches challenges.

First up, Scrap the Girls, the challenge was to be inspired by the sites new banner:

I used predominantly the colours (or shades/tints there of!). I went with a pink, green and touch of orange colour scheme, and I also used flowers/foliage and floral paper.

For the Stuck?! sketch (1st one for the month) here is the sketch:

And here is my version:

I had great fun with a new Prima mask and some texture paste and using lots of my silhouette cut files too. This turned out to be a fun page!

Thought I would throw in one of the "other" pages that I managed to complete too.

Playing with masks and texture paste again, I loved how this turned out, a relatively simple page, but full of detail and texture with the mask and other embellishments.

Thanks for stopping by.

Katie x

Scrap the Boys and Anna's Craft Cupboard Sketch

Well, what a hectic couple of weeks have I had! The Scrapbooking Convention was on again at the Brisbane Convention Centre over the Queen's Birthday long weekend and I was lucky enough to be a part of it this year. Ang and I helped out Nicole who owns Craft Queen and what fun we had! We were there from Friday for set-up until Monday night to see it all packed away again.

Then this weekend just passed, I was lucky enough to spend with my crafty bff's, crafting and laughing and eating all weekend! This weekend was very productive as far as challenges went! I think I managed to complete four. But I won't bombard you with all of them at once! Aside from that I managed another seven pages! And that was despite the procrastination and distractions!!

So let's get to it. First up, Scrap the Boys. This month the brief was to use a photo 5x7 or larger. I decided to go big, 8x10 big and I experimented to by printing onto vellum! So here is the finished result:

I kept if fairly simple and neutral, to let the photo shine. I love this photo of my brother with his son, I managed to be in the right place at the right time to catch this moment!

The next page for now is for Anna's sketch. This month the sketch looked like this:

And this is what I finished with:

I had some fun playing around with cut files from my Silhouette and then colouring them with watercolour paints.

Well, I think that will do for now! But rest assured there is more to come!

Til next time,

Katie x

D'Lish Scraps - March Inspiration Board

Wow, is it just me or is March flying by?! Well I have managed to do one challenge so far, still sorting and cleaning my scrap area so it has been harder to find time to sit and play, not to mention remembering where I have put everything!

I have decided to play along with D'Lish Scraps inspiration board. I spent six lovely months on the Creative Team for D'Lish and really enjoyed the boards that Amanda came up with each month, now I get to join in on the other side! This month's board really spoke to me, especially the colours which are so vibrant!

Aren't the colours just divine?! So my inspiration came first and foremost from the colours, then the flowers and lastly the little bit of gold in one of the pictures. So here is my result:

This was a fun page to create! Firstly I cut the dandelion flower pattern with my Silhouette using acetate to create a re-usable mask. I was so impressed with how well it cut the intricate detail! Have I mentioned lately how much I love this machine??!! With the mask in place I used some Faber Castell glaze medium over the mask which dries with a gloss and resists the ink which I added next. I used the bright Dylusion spray mists with a paintbrush, and when it was dry I wiped over the pattern to remove any excess ink.  A few splats of Mr Huey's Passport for some contrast, my photos, bits and pieces from D'Lish, gold flowers cut from gold foil paper, a title and my journalling and we're done!

Well, hopefully I can get some more challenges done before the end of the month, but if the first 3 weeks is anything to go by my chances are small!

Oh, did I mention that I was the lucky winner of the Anna's Craft Cupboard sketch challenge for February! I was stoked to hear about that one! You can see my entry in this post here.

Until next time!

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

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!

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