Purple Pumpkin Guest Designer

Well, I came back from Melbourne to find out that Purple Pumpkin were looking for two Guest Designers and seeing how I love their bits and pieces I thought I should throw my hat in the ring!!

So, to enter you need to throw up one of your favourite layouts (whether you have used Purple Pumpkin goodness or not!) and talk about Purple Pumpkin. Well, it just so happens that I have a couple of layouts that I haven't shared yet which use some PP goodness and I have a hard time narrowing it down to favourites so I consider them all favourites!

So here is my first one, and probably my favourite of the two. It shows some photos from UN Day at the local high school (where DD#1 will be going next year!). I thought the owl button was perfect to go along with the "school" theme to the page, and I loved getting four pictures on the page without it looking overdone.

And this one, I love for its simplicity. I do like my clean lines and white space (if you haven't already noticed!). The button here amongst the flourish and flowers just finishes off the page, and helps create the red visual triangle too. I love these photos too, catching these two at their best!

Well, that is it for now. I will have to come back with some photos from Melbourne and my OOTH sample for July. There is still time to get your entry in for OOTH so get over and take a look if you haven't already!

Catch you next time.

Katie

School Holidays

Well, the next round of school holidays have begun. I for one am glad! I think we all needed a bit of time to unwind and relax. The past term, while short was pretty action packed! The kids all had great report cards so we are both very proud too.

Later we will be going to Melbourne for a nice short break. Looking forward to that, it has been around 20 years, I think, since I was last there. And we will be there for the King Tut exhibition which is ultra cool!

So apart from that, things are pretty normal. I have a little bit of scrapping to share and then I am off to check on dinner. Slow cooked beef casserole! Smells delicious!!

I think all of these are based on sketches. I am finding to get things done at the moment that is the easiest way to work! Less thinking on my part too :) From top to bottom I think they were from: Becky Flecks Page Maps 2 (a great book for inspiration!);Write, Click, Scrapbook; Inspired Blueprints.

Oh, see the cool fabric buttons on all three pages?? I have been making my own! Aren't they cool, and so simple too, so now I can co-ordinate with whatever I am working on. Sweet!

Catch you next time.

Katie

Time to share

Thought I might just pop in and share some stuff, you know, just because I can and I haven't for a while now!

A couple of weeks ago we had the big Scrapbook show on at the convention centre. I was really looking forward to stocking up on some Martha Stewart punches, which I did and some gorgeous stamps too. Because you can never have enough stamps!

I have been playing and creating too. Always a good combination! So, what to share?? Well how about this one...

Playing with a sketch from somewhere ( I should write them down shouldn't I?? I think it was Creative Scrappers), and using some Sassafrass and lots of hand made goodness!

And maybe this one too?

Playing with some Pink Paisley, new border punches (an old one, but one I decided I really needed to have!), making flowers, embossing, all sorts of things going on here!

And one last one for today.

Another new border punch (yes another older one...), the beautiful Girly doily stamps from My Minds Eye (another show purchase and they are just to die for!) and some of the very pretty (one of my favourites) Crate Paper Emma's Shop papers.

So I think that will do for today! Now I need to go back to my desk and make stuff!

Thanks for popping on by!

June OOTH Challenge

Well, we are right into another month, already, and that means another challenge over at Out of the Hat. This month the criteria is:

1. Kraft and bright colours

2. 6 buttons

3. A bird or birds somewhere

So this is what I came up with.

I have used some Basic Grey "Fort Lauderdale" papers which were appropriately bright, 6 clear buttons with a rainbow of coloured twine to make bows in each and finally a cute little bird from Fancy Pants "Its the Little Things" line. Throw in an inked doily and hey presto, my page is done! So if you want something to do, go and give this one a try!

I have also managed to do the Purple Pumpkin June sketch. Here is the sketch:

Apart from using the sketch you also need to use some Purple Pumpkin goodies on your page. Here is my interpretation of the sketch:

I have used some Echo Park "For the Record" papers, along with 3 spotty buttons from Purple Pumpkin (these spotty buttons are my favourite!).

I am now counting down to the Scrapbook show at the convention centre this weekend! This will be the first time in years that I will just be going to go and not working, which is both a little sad and a little good. I am hanging out to buy some more border punches so I hope there are lots of great specials!!

Until next time,
Katie

Kaisercraft Sketch

Back with another layout! I regularly check out the Kaisercraft blog and try to do one of their Saturday sketches when I can, and this weekend I really loved the sketch that went up and I had time to work on it!! So first of all here is the sketch:

and this is my interpretation. I flipped the sketch around 90 degrees to suit the photos.:

I really enjoyed putting this one together and did many things that I don't do too often. I stamped onto transparency and did some fiddly cutting and made some flowers! This was one of those pages that you just knew what papers to use and how it was going to come together! I wish more were like that!

Apart from that, I have another few pages from the retreat to share. These were done using some of the Fancy Pants range "Its the Little Things", I just love this collection! It is so varied and so beautiful! I simply love the colours in this collection!

I used some sketches for the first two. Pencil Lines and Inspired Blueprints are probably the likely place, I can't remember now! And they probably took on a life of their own along the way!

Well that's it for now! I still have more to share from the retreat so I will be back soon!

Katie

Challenge Scrapping

Well, I have to say I have been scrapping up a storm this weekend! I was lucky enough to spend the weekend with girlfriends at a scrapping retreat and I was very proud of myself having completed 9 pages!! Can you believe it?? I almost couldn't. I rarely get much done when I scrap with friends (I am guilty of talking too much and scrapping very little!), so I really didn't expect that I would achieve much at all. But I think I packed right, didn't think about things too much and took challenges and sketches to work from and then things happened!

So, I have a Purple Pumpkin sketch challenge entry (because my order arrived just in the nick of time on Friday before I left!). So here is the sketch:

and here is my take:

The only other criteria was to include some Purple Pumpkin goodness! Which I did with the cool pink spotty button. I used Crate Paper Emma's Shop which is absolutely lovely to work with too.

The other challenge was for Scrap Jacked. I chose to use a page by Bec as my inspiration and used some Basic Grey Life of the Party for a simple boy page. Here is the inspiration page:

and here is mine

I still have trouble looking at this photo of Liam for too long, he just looks too grown up, certainly older than his six years!

Well that is enough for now. But rest assured I will be back with some more pages to share soon!!

Catch you later,
Katie

May Out of the Hat

I remembered that I should put up here my sample for the May Out of the Hat challenge! The criteria is:

3 Different brands of patterned paper

Include a bow somewhere

No Alpha stickers - think rub-ons, chipboard, hand written, stamped, sewn etc for your letters!

So this one made me think a little, and then have lots of fun mixing my papers! The result is this:

So the papers I used came from Sassafrass, Pink Paisley and Basic Grey. I used some old Scenic Route chipboard letters (I used to love these ones!!) and my bows are obvious!! I love this photo of Liam with his cousin. They do love spending time together which is so wonderful to see.

OK, that's it for now. Catch you soon.

Katie