Stamps Ahead

The final layout for The 21 Challenge. I have finished off with a recent photo of me. I have kept it simple and put in one of my favourite quotes that I have tried to live by: Whatever you are - be that! Whatever you say - be true! Straight-forwardly act, Be honest - in fact, Be nobody else but you. I would like to say thank you to everyone who has encouraged me, sponsored me and donated to The 21 Challenge. It is not to late to donate - just click on the link on the top right of my blog. Tonight is the longest night of the year in the southern hemisphere and I am blessed that I can spend it in the warmth of my home and that I have the warmth of my family and friends at all times - others are not so blessed, that is what this challenge has been about for me - making a difference in other people's lives.

The penultimate page. I have had some brushes with fame over the years - When I was bank teller Johnny O'Keefe came in for his banking, I cashed his cheque and he said "Thanks love!!!. I remember one time I had flown from New York to LAX, the plane was late arriving at LAX and even later leaving for Sydney that meant many hours waiting at LAX - when in came Hugh Jackman and he was rushed through to First Class - no doubt spending time in some first class lounge beforehand and not with me in Cattle Class. This page is dedicated to one other of my brushes with fame. The journaling reads: " My brush with fame. June, 2009 Great American Scrapbook Convention Arlington, Texas. When I first started scrapbooking I bought 2 books by Joanna Campbell Slan that are full of journaling hints and tips. Imagine my delight when I am came across her signing two recent novels, with a scrapbooking theme. I was starstruck! I bought and she signed the books and I told her I had her other boo...

This is my Grandfather (we kids called him "Pop") standing beside Crawford Rd sign, in Morriset NSW. He and my Grandmother moved from Hornsby to Morriset in 1930. This road was named after him, as he was a representative on the Morriset Farms Estate during the depression. This company used to show people farms that were for sale, selling off plan in Corranbong and Morriset and surrounding districts. He had a dairy up the road and used to supply milk during the depression - my Dad spent his younger years on the farm and would always tell us tales of life on the farm. In 1947 Pop and Grandma would leave Morriset and settle for the rest of their lives in Asquith. This photograph would have been taken in the 1960's - and yes the road is still there. As children we would many times make the journey to Crawford Rd, we would take friends and family to show them the sign. We would all have our photos taken to record the occasion (just can't find those photos). Towards the end...

The story of the clown. Okay sometimes I have been called a clown, but this is not my story. Just over 30 years ago my first nephew was born, and being a really proud auntie I went out and bought some soft toys, books etc for him to play with when he came to my place. At the time I was working in St Leonards, so I paid a visit to the gift shop at Royal North Shore Hospital and this clown just said 'buy me'. Some 2 years later his brother was born and over the years they enjoyed playing with the clown with the long legs. Then 21 years ago my niece was born and she too played with the Clown as well as any children who visited me. Here is the clown out and about now - my 2nd nephews children now play with it when they come to visit. I was inspired to create the woven page border, after seeing a challenge in the book "A designer's eye for scrapbooking with patterned paper" by Ali Edwards. Quite a lot of colours in the photo so I hope I have done The Clown justice.

Just 4 days until the shortest day of the year - or for many it is the longest night of the year. Why not consider donating to assist The 21 Challenge - see link on top of my blog. Thank you to all those who have already donated, it is much appreciated. In an earlier post, I did a layout of a visit that we did to Ginger Factory in July, 08. Now this was just one thing that we did on that holiday. I had found a box of these journalling notes and I asked Jess and Heather (and me) to write out thoughts on what we would remember about the holiday. I used the stamp set I had out yesterday, Scribble This, to stamp the background and then I put some stick-on rhinestones to add a bit of sparkle to match the fabulous beaches. I hope you can see them - I will wait for tomorrow and take a better photo in the sunlight.

Another layout with flowers! I here you say. But this layout is simply a very self indulgent bragging about myself!!!. Back in October last year I attended a Crop for Pink (to raise funds for McGrath Foundation) organised by Scrapapple Penrith. It was a great day with lots of classes and competitions. I was lucky to win a subscription to Scrapbook Creations magazine with the cards that you see above. And here I am with Donna Macpherson, Managing Editior of the magazine. Do I look happy or what!! I was so pleased. For the layout I have used all of the elements that I used on my cards with the exception of the darker green paper that I seem to have run out of. The card "From you to Me" went to a friend for a recent birthday.

I set myself a challenge today - to use my Circle Scissors Plus (CSP). I have had trouble mastering this 'easy' tool to create circles. So off to Goggle to do a search - I was not all that impressed with cutting photos into circles and I just did not seem to have photos that would suit circles as a key design feature, and then I stumbled upon Witty Images where they had made flowers using circles. I used this as an inspiration to create my flowers using CSP. I was very pleased and very chuffed with myself that I created perfect varying sized circles only to ink and distress them!! The photo is of my sister taken on Christmas Day, 1994. Now if you have read my blog you will remember that her favourite colour is blue and her favourite style is Shabby Chic (although these days she is moving towards French Provincial). I have done a lot of distressing and inking of edges and have used some vintage grosgrain ribbon. It seems as though I have a lot of single photographs, from th...

One of the things I have slowly been doing over the past few months is taking photographs out of old style photo albums. This challenge has led me to look at lots of them and I found this one. It was obviously a special occasion - looks like a trip to the hairdresser was in order - look at those curly locks (permed of course) and I am wearing make-up and earrings!!! I made the flowers this morning. Take a punched circle, about 30cm of lace (I used some old lace I had), then I put some Crystal Effects (CE) around the circle and using my fingers move lace around the shape and then into the centre of cirle (use more CE if needed), finally put a bard in the centre. This is a very soft page, very girly don't you think. I have not decided if or where to put journalling.

On June, 2009 I was staying with Carol and David, down on their farm in Doniphan, Missouri. Here is a layout of our shopping trip into town on 2nd June, 2009. Not sure what the man at the feed shop thought of this stranger from Australia taking his photo. The population of Doniphan was 1932 at the 2000 census (from Wikipedia), so it is a very small city.

Today I am very late - let me tell you why! My sister and I went for a drive, and then a little spot of dinner here. I asked her to set my challenge for today's layout. So looking in Scrapbook Trends (a great little magazine that comes from UK) for January, 2010 she found a page (101) with a single photo layout. Now this taken me some time to put together, notice there is some machining and much layering of different elements. I love the movement on this page - Jess dancing, Graeme clapping in time to the music, the circles, the hearts floating off the photo, the ribbon winding its way, the little bird and the gold button. Again this is a favourite photo from many years ago and as soon as I saw the layout I knew this was the photo I wanted to find - I just had to remember where I put it!!! Anyway, I hope you enjoy my challenge within a challenge.

Back in July, 08 my sister, niece and I headed to Coolum in Queensland for a week of sun, rest and relaxation. One of the side trips we did was to the Ginger Factory in Yandina - Jess and I did the Taste of Ginger Tour (Heather had done it before). As we waited for the tour to begin I had Jess pose with the Gingerbread Men (are you serious? > Yes! > Okay). I am in one of the photo's - check out the hand in the image in the circle - that is my hand!!!! If you are ever up that way it is a good tour to take - you get to sample ginger drinks and snacks made with ginger as the core ingredient.

A little late in getting today's layout finished.These photos were taken on my short holiday to Tangalooma Island Resort in April. Some magnificent sunsets each evening. Here I am waiting for the sunset you see in the bottom photo. The quote is "It is almost impossible to watch a sunset and not dream." Bern Williams. I love that the Tim Holtz Muse Tokens - Wonderful, Journey and Thoughts are so appropriate for this layout. The CS is black but it has not photographed well. I never seem to be able to hold/control my hands in photographs - then I just looked at the photograph on the right - I have shaped (not intentionally) them like a heart, okay a slightly skewed heart and this is so true - I love the beauty of sunsets.

Wow, has it been cold in Sydney Town today!!! This photo of my sister was taken in 2008 whilst she was on a European Christmas Markets tour - it was taken in front of Kathe Wohlfahrt Christmas Shoppe in Rothenburg, Germany. I love this photo of her and the colours of all the presents on top of the vehicle. It also reminds me my visit there about 20 years ago and wandering about in wonder of all the fabulous Christmas trees, ornaments etc. The tag, tucked in under the photo, has the journalling. Not your traditional colours for Christmas and I had the gold embossing out from yesterdays layout. A bright layout for a cold day and evening to come. The inspiration for this page came from Scrapbook Trends, December 2009. I am nice and warm tonight - I am blessed that I can be, however others, in completely different circumstances to me are not as blessed. You can help - I'm participating in The 21 Challenge to raise funds for Open Family Australia to help at-risk and homeless young ...

These photos show just what fun can be had with a $2 bubble set. I gold embossed the letters of 'Bubble Fun" and then circle punched them out and placed large circles behind. I love how the kids (and their Dad) got into the fun -running and chasing the bubbles.

Well here I am at Day 7 - 1/3rd of the way through The 21 Challenge. I hope you have been enjoying my layouts. Today's layout is a photo of me at 11 - wearing a hand knitted jumper and skirt that my mother had made. The bike was hers, that she used when she was younger. I love this picture for a number of reasons - not only the memory of my mother but it was taken by a well-loved family friend. The buttons and lace are old. One fond memory growing up was my mothers box of buttons that we used to play with on wet wintery days!!! The journal block says "Memory is a way of holding on to the things that you love, the things you are, and the things you never want to loose."

I recently blogged a photograph of a card I gave my brother for his birthday. Here are some photographs taken at his birthday dinner. I love that we are all smiling in these photos - "Life is like a mirror, we get the best results when we smile at it." ~Author Unknown. And that the words on the paper (that I bought in USA last year - not sure if it is available in Australia) just seemed right to describe my brother - I have used some hardware to highlight some of the words.

On 31st May, Jess (my niece) and I were watching "The Circle" on Channel 10 when we heard about The 21 Challenge. Now, also on this show was a man making what he called "Drunk Food" a cake (muffin) in a cup. After we finished we immediately went into my kitchen and made our own. I did not have any cocoa, so we used drinking chocolate and had fun making and watching them rise in the microwave. At times they looked as they would erupt - but the end result was YUM (Mine is the picture above). And OOPS we forgot that there was supposed to be some oil - but it did not need in our humble opinion. On a side note - Jess sent me a proper recipe the next day!!! So must try that. Back with another layout tomorrow. Until then happy cooking!!!

More photos that I have been wanting to put on a layout for some time! I was thrown by the colours of my top - just could not get a CS to match - so put them away until now. I did crop the photos down and that helped me see a layout. Now about the photos. Soon after arriving in Xiantang at Hunan Institute of Engineering (HIE) as an English teacher, I was asked to prepare a presentation for English Corner (where the students organise an evening where they had entertainment etc). I was asked to talk on why a student should study in a foreign country and I was told I could 'sing' as well. Well I love to sing, and have been in several choirs in my time but not before this crowd!!! I decided to give them a taste of Aussie slang - I prepared a bag with whatever Aussie I had with me - I would put on my 'sunnies', throw the 'lollies', put on my 'lippy' and put up my 'brolly' and more. The students loved it and had many a laugh - often during my year at ...

Did you watch "Who do you think you are?" last night? Matthew Broderick found out that his great-grandfather was killed in the American Civil War. This reminded me that I had not created a layout of my visit in June, last year to Shiloh, Tennessee. This was the site of a major Civil War battle - it lasted just 2 days, 6-7th April, 1862. There was 23,746 casualties (both sides) out of 109,784 men. Monuments are erected where the troops were located and a star shows that a General died on that spot. This was a very insightful visit and you could not not be moved by the experience. I have purposely kept the page simple - just a replica musket rifle (don't worry it is just a pen).

My challenge to myself for Day 2 (20 days to end of The Challenge) was to open a scrapbooking magazine at page 20 and design a layout inspired by something on that page. The magazine was Creating Keepsakes March 2009. These are some of my favourite photos of my brother and his kids - they were taken in 1992. It is ironic that I chose these photos tonight to scrap as 1+9+9+2 = 21. To counterbalance the rather earthy colours I put in a little pink to match Jess's top and socks. Come back tomorrow night to see my Day 3 layout.

I have registered for The 21 Challenge at http://www.openfamilyfundraising.org.au/ The 21 Challenge is your chance to help homeless youth by doing something you love, perhaps something you don’t love, or even something you’ve never done before, for 21 days. I will be doing something I love - scrapbooking a page a day for 21 days. My niece is also participating and she has made a greater sacrifice - giving up Facebook for 21 days. I thought it appropriate to start with a page of my 21st birthday party many years ago. I made my crepe pantsuit (with a touch of glitter in the weave) and check out the little pink bow in my hair. And look how skinny I was then....... Such fun times and it only seems like yesterday. If you would like to donate some money to this cause you can do so my personal page my direct link for donations is http://www.openfamilyfundraising.org.au/personalPage.aspx?registrationID=348751 Come back tomorrow to see page 2/21.