Stamps Ahead

A challenge over at Soul Scrappers was what they call ABC with a twist.  This month the letter was "B" and you had to use buttons.   Here is what I came up with.  Back on 26 August, 1978 I was a bridesmaid for my friends Judith (Judy) and Keith.  I was 28 years old. I was perming my hair in those days and had it styled for the wedding.   I still have the dress, what you cannot see is that it was long, and had bands of gathering on the skirt.  I wanted to keep the layout quite retro and used years old rubons.  The title was chipboard which I painted with white acrylic paint and then dabbed an ink pad to create texture.  The photos below show result.  I have hidden some rubons and buttons with in the torn edges as well. Painted white  Ink applied When I was trying to locate date of their wedding I found this little note/envelope from Judy thanking me for being her bridesmaid.  I will certainly be including it i...

These photos of my sister and I have been just waiting to be scrapped since January, 2014. It was her birthday and we went out to dinner at a local restaurant.  Every time I picked them up thinking "I will get them on a layout today" it just did not work.  I think I was put off by the colours, and all softness of the photos. Today, was the day I did something about them.  I have combined two challenges.  The first was this sketch from The Memory Nest  The second is a challenge at Soul Scrappers and it uses the Tic Tac Toe format  I went for the three running down the right hand side.   The something old was the flower cluster that I have had in my stash for years - I think it was originally intended for me to make into a brooch but that never happened!  The spray I used was Glimmer Mist Forest Green, and if I am honest I have also had this for many years ever since Glimmer Mist was the "in" product.  I also sprayed the ...

I made some cards this week and played around with a new die set (more about that later) and also punches. The first is a little note card that was inspired by a class I did with Jillibean Soup at Great Lakes Mega Meet last year.  A great way to use up scraps.   These two cards use a new die set I recently purchased.  It is by Sizzix and is called Regal Stand-ups and it contained 22 (yes 22 dies) the cards also used some punches and circle dies I have.   They look great but they are even greater when opened up to an easel card....Don't you just like that chevron die.  To make it and the greetings stick I used Sizzix adhesive sheets - so much easier than using glue.  Stampin' Up! users will recognize the paper and punches.  Here is the side view of the opened card. This card uses torn paper to create the focal point. A clean and simple card. Not a card but I also got my embroidery on this week and embroidered these garden gloves....

Another page I created at the crop day I attended yesterday.  This time I used a sketch from The Memory Nest I used one of my favourite collection of papers from Stampin' Up! (r) called Maritime Designer Series paper - only little bits and pieces of it left now.  The photo was taken atop the Ferry as it cruised along the beautiful Hawkesbury River, near to where I live.  This cruise was one of my birthday gifts to my sister. Life is different on the river, it was a time to relax take in the view, have morning tea and a ploughman's lunch as we cruised up and down the river delivering mail to settlements and homes along the Hawkesbury. Here is the sketch: Thank you for looking, Margaret. p.s. Just found out that my layout of Aurora was a January winner over at The Memory Nest. Thank you so much. And to think I nearly threw out the background paper I created!!!

Yesterday, I attended an all day crop day at Shop and Crop, Warner's Bay on the beautiful Lake Macquarie.  Here are just some of the pages I created. This was a sketch challenge that Kylie set.  My photos were taken at Mirror Lake, in the Blanchard Caverns and Springs area of Arkansas, USA.  Here are my friends David and Carol looking at the lake - yes it was just as green and beautiful as in the pictures.  What you cannot see in this small picture here, is that there are people fishing along the side of the lake.  This is not colours I would normally use so it was good to get out of my comfort zone - colour wise. These photos were taken along the Cabot Trail, Cape Breton Highlands National Park, Nova Scotia, Canada where the trail runs along side the Atlantic Ocean.  The pebbles/rocks?  That is the what you walk on - so different to the sand here in Australia.  On the last day of my Trafalgar Tour, Enchanting Maritimes tou...

I have been busy over the past few days - I did attend a crop day at a local store yesterday that spurred me on to get more layouts completed.  This layout uses all Stampin'Up! product including On Film Framelit dies. The quote is "Celebrate Life - each day is a gift waiting to be unwrapped" and it comes on Philsophy brand soaps etc. A bright and colourful page to be put in my USA 2014 album. This double page layout is a complete kit from Basic Grey - Lucille Collection.  I amended it slightly to enable photographs taken on my sister's birthday to be included.  Morning tea - tick; Dinner - tick; River Cruise to come. I completed the background to this layout back in October  when I used many layers to create it.  It has been on my desk since then just waiting for the right photograph.  The circle of flowers and ribbon was inspired by a layout by Cat Burchmore in Scrap 365 magazine of June/July 2014. My flowers include a stamp...

Here is a layout inspired by a challenge at Pixels and Paper Challenge blog .  Here is the challenge photo  We could interpret it in any way.  This was a timely challenge for me, as I had just booked a Christmas Market tour starting in Paris for later this year. My sister and I will have a few days in Paris (which just happens to be one of her favourite cities) pre-tour.  I last visited Paris in 2011.  The photograph on my layout was taken during that previous visit and it is looking towards the Eiffel Tour (Tower) from Montparnasser Tour (Tower).  The sun came out just as I was taking the photograph.  I was inspired by a digital layout at Scrapbook.com by Rain_dog who in turn lifted it from Oziem, according to the website, that layout had a small clock and Eiffel Tour embellishments - these are what sparked my imagination - thank you.  I first inked up and distressed the dotted DSP from Stampin'Up! which I then scrunched ...

These photos had been sitting for some time I was wondering what to do with them.  The photos here of Jason's shirt don't show the intensity of the flouro green that it was....Last night I took some kraft cardstock and with white gesso painted it.  After it dried (not long as we have been having some hot summer evenings here) I applied a mixture of green and yellow Gelato crayons to try and match the colour of the shirt.  Then into my stash I went and found Project Life Honey Edition papers and cards = perfect to match all the different colours in the photos. Stickers and drawn lines completed the layout. Thank you Bax family for your friendship and I love catching up with you when I am in Missouri and remembering the adventures we shared with many more to come I am sure.