a few new places for inspiration :

I have just come across a couple of sites which have left me quite inspired (note no new scrapping from me as yet though *groan*)

The first is ella publishing. It has a free emagazine and a LOT of great ebooks that are about $5.99 US and look amazing! These are a simple transaction to pay, download and print.

The second site is a bit of a sister site to ella, and is big picture scrapbooking and is an absolute treasure trove of info. There are a couple of free classes to kick start creativity too so well worth a look around.

I would love to know what you think of these!

not sure if anyone has noticed...

but it is only 26 more days until the retreat!!

WOW!

I have heard a few people in the community talking about getting their class stuff organized (good girls!) so i thought i would add the list on here again with the gear that you will need to bring to each class.

Amanda's Layout Class

Time : Friday 26th March 2010 PM class

photo theme - you or a child's top 5 from 2009 (photo of whoever's top 5 you are scrapping)

photo requirements : 1 x portrait black and white 8 x 12cm

other requirements : You will also need a list of 5 sentences of your subject's top 5 from 2009. These are to be typed and printed from a word or publisher document.

Font : Times New Roman and size : 14 pts.

Each sentence to be on a new line. (as an example my daughter's top 5 for 2009 were :

Birthday sleepover with friends in our caravan.

Family holiday to Clare with the Slaters.

Miss Rohrlach as my teacher (She is so cool).

Playing netball—my Coach ROCKED.

Seeing Uncle Rhino. )

I printed mine onto gloss photo paper but normal reflex white A4 is ok too. This will need to be done prior to the retreat as there will be NO printing facilities there. Remember : 5 short sentences on separate lines.

Scrap stash to bring to class: adhesive (tape runner, glue dots, DST- whatever you normally use) , stapler, cardinal red and turqouise versacolour inks if you have them (some available to use in class if you don't already have these colours), sandpaper.

Meredith's Flip Album Class

Time : Saturday 27th March 2010 AM Class

photo theme - your children, pets, or family

Photo requirements : 4 x portrait OR landscape colour photos trimmed to 8.75 x 15cm

Scrap stash to bring: bone folder (folding tool), pencil, ruler, glue dots, brown or black gel pen, stapler

Mel's Layout Class

Time: Saturday 27th March PM class

photo theme - summertime / beach.

photo requirements: 1x landscape colour 18x11cm , 2 x portrait colour 7.5 x 5cm

scrap stash to bring: edge distresser, brown ink, 3D mounting tape (foam DST) , medium paint brush, vintage button (size about 2cm x 2cm)

Also if you are attending our 2010 retreat and have not recieved the latest newsletter please let me know.

Sandra - cover challenge

Hi Amanda

Well I am going to break the trend (pardon the pun...groan) and go with a different magazine... Scrapbook Trends.I am scraplifting Sheri Reguly's work(Sorry for the crappy camera work.)

Yes that is me on my layout... cute wasn't I?? I still have no idea what happened...lol. I had a wonderful Christmas present from my sister, for which I was so grateful.... I disc FULL of my old family photos!As I am estranged from my parents I hardly had any of myself as a child and I treasure these photos so much, as now I have a little bit of my history to show my children.

Cheers

Sandra

So true Sandra - Scrapbook Trends is another magazine which has 'classic' and lovely pages in to lift. That front cover is an excellent example of a page which is full and yet still apears to be uncluttered.

Your page is lovely! That photo (awwwww cute!) The big red rose, the pink thickers and yummy vintage-y papers are perfect. Brilliant Sandra. This is beautiful. I can imagine how precious that gift from your sister was - what a thoughtful thing to do.

Lisa - cover challenge

Hi Amanda,

OMG I have actually done some scrapping. First LO since the Karkoo retreat. This was a nice easy one to get my mind back onto scrapping, thanks for the challenge. I have lifted a LO from the cover of an old SM, by Belinda Venables.

I still need to add some stitching to mine, but my sewing machine is not working atm, so if I don't get it sorted before the retreat, will be bringing the LO with me to finish it off. I tried so hard to doodle around the letters like in the original, but I JUST CAN'T DO IT! LOL, no matter how hard I try it always looks messy and yuck when I do it...love it when others do it though. So, out with my trusty inks...a page doesn't feel complete without some ink anyways, so all is good.
Thanks for looking.

Cheers,Lisa

This is awesome Lisa! Great colourful paper (very Belinda!) and wow they sure pop on the kraft! Also love that blue felt flower! It is ironic actually - great minds think alike....and you will have to wait a little bit for that cryptic message to make sense! That is a VERY cute photo too - adorable! The chip hearts really finish it all off beautifully.

Sorry for the delay in popping it up here too Lisa - things are madness around my place at the minute!

retreat packing / storage tip

Yesterday as i was poking around in Kmart i found this little baby :

Granted - it isn't fancy = but wow is it cute and compact!

It's a very cheap,'under the desk' kind of storage unit. Not big enough for 12 x 12 papers but perfect for embellishements and all our other scrap essentials that are critical to take on the retreat.

This would be an unreal option to keeping things compact for the retreat. Enough storage for all the necessary bits and bobs and yet not cumbersome.

The drawers are very large - i can see my thicker collection nestling in there comfortably and calling it home for 3 or so days! These 'apartments' could also house my rub-ons and there may even be a few new tenants over the course of the weekend ;-)

I think if i pack mine full, as well as a separate thing for my papers it will be more than enough for the retreat weekend. It is quite small and i can imagine it rolling (yep the little castor wheels roll beautifully) under the table out of the way of everyone and yet still handy enough to grab in an embellishment emergency.

Found in the storage / plastic container area in Kmart. With my careful book keeping i have stashed the reciept in a safe place and cannot find it to tell you an exact price. From memory it was either $13 or $23 - either way i say CHEAP!

Tracey - cover challenge

Howdy Amanda,

Attached is my effort at the covergirl challenge. This is an old CK magazine Nov 2006 but it has always been a favorite. The magazine cover layout is by Angi Stevens.

I have thrown this layout together of my mum. She is such a beautiful lady with a heart of gold. I am very thankful that she is my mum and I am allowed to keep her all for myself. I would be lost without her, she is my best friend and I love spending time with her.

Thanks for this challenge I have been madly quilting this week and now I need to get my butt into gear and get myself organised for the retreat. Have a great day.

Tracey

by Angi Stevens

By Tracey.

Oh Trace this is stunning. I can see why you wanted to lift the original - so timeless and classy!

Love those papers you have used - very vintage and yum. Perfect!

I can't believe how similar you are in the face to your Mum in that pic = i have never noticed before!! And can i just add that i am very envious of your relationship. That is what a mother/daughter bond should be like.

Great job Tracey. Love it in so many ways.

Marika - cover challenge

Well well well it seems Creating Keepsakes is our fav. mag to lift!

From the October 2009 issue (layout by Laura Vegas) Marika has lifted...

Marika says :

Probably my last page for a while we start moving stuff tomorrow so there will be a bit going on in this house hopefully I have my scrap room reorganised in time to pack stuff for the retreat.

Thanks Marika

and here is Marika's delicious lift:

oooh those tags - they look awesome. Oh Oh and that measuring tape - is that a stamp? Totally fab Marika!

Good luck with the move and i hope your scrap room gets sorted out really quickly so tht you can have some creative time again soon.

Tiff - cover challenge

Tiff has sent in a clever take on the challenge.

Thanks for fiddling with the 'magazine' Tiff - i thought it was a great, fun idea but wanted to avoid any potential issues. I don't think our volunteer group would be able to fund any legal issues!! *wink wink*

Not exactly what i was thinking of for this challenge but very clever. Shows your sense of humour lol.

Jenny - cover challenge

Jenny has gotten into the scrapping mode and given us a page for the cover challenge and i LOVE it!

It is taken from this magazine - CK Nov. 2008 and is the front layout by Lee Lawson.

This is Jenny's version:

I think this is amazing in so many ways. The first being that you are a very clever digi chick! The second is that you have turned a very feminine layout into a very masculine one! And the third reason is your studio photos of your boys - I think those shots of the boys are really lovely.

Great work Jenny. Thanks for sending it in!

Ali - Sue's sketch

Hi Sue, here is my take on your sketch. It looks not much like it, I'm not the best at following things very well! But I am happy with the end result!
Thanks
Ali M

Great job Ali. Love those muted 'baby girl' tones - adorable. You did a great job following the sketch - this is wonderful work and such a cute little poppet.

Celebrate our cover girls challenge.

To celebrate Kylie's cover girl status AND that our very special interstate retreat teacher Mel Forbes is featured on Scrapbook Creations cover at the moment i challenge us all to become 'cover girls'.

This surprise challenge involves you picking a magazine cover (come on i know you have got a pile stashed away there somewhere!) and copy it.... yep scraplift a cover that you love.

This is mine that i worked on today. It is very liberating not having to think of design, colour and style.......actually i loved it. Copying someone else's work also enables you to try different styles and techniques that you may not think to do on you own.

The cover i have 'borrowed' is the Feb. issue of Creating Keepsakes.

and here is my version:

and this is the little book i made:

Of course the first rule of scraplifting or gaining inspiration from others work is to always credit. So the original layout was from the Feb. issue of CK 2010 and the artist is Susan Weinroth.

Lets see what you can scraplift! Remember cover layouts only!!

Maryanne - mat title

Maryanne has done a fantastic page with the mat title challenge in mind. The big number 1 and 9 are matted and boy oh boy it just jumps right off the page. LOVE your sewing and the 'notepad' type of feel to the page.

Heck it looks like that might hurt a lot though! Owch.

Fantastic pages maryanne and the brighness of the papers are really stunning. The yellow is magnificent!

Lisa - photo challenge

Hi Amanda,

Thought I would contribute a photo to the 'photo-bomb' theme.
This was taken last summer. I was trying to get a photo of Halle and Nana together, when Peter decided it would be a good time to throw Tyla in front of the camera. Thank goodness for zoom lenses is all I can say...

Cheers,
Lisa

Fabulous Lisa. A 'bomb' in more ways than one hey! LOL.

Great job and thanks for participating. Hope to see some more of you soon.

Chaz - photo challenge

Hi Amanda,

I wanted to send in a photo of when we went to coopers creek last year. I was taking a photo of Demi and Maddy when Tayla came through the picture in a fantastic way.

Ta Chaz

Fantastic example of a photo bomb Chaz. I laughed a lot at the expression on Tayla's face! Priceless!

Thanks for sending it in. Great to see another retreat chickadee popping her head in and participating!

Amanda - Sue's sketch

Cover girl Kylie ...

Oh my goodness ...

I just picked up this week's Stock Journal ( I only look at the pictures!!) and what should I see on the cover ...


a photo of three children that I am 99% certain was taken by their Mum Kylie Shepperd!!!

Unfortunately I couldn't find it credited to her anywhere but I think this won in a calendar competition for ABB for the 2010 calender!!

That is such a thrill I reckon!!

IMPORTANT NOTE RE. RETREAT

One vacancy has become available for our retreat next month (March 26 - 28th 2010) at Nt Shields.

This is sad news for us however this is FORTUNATE news for someone wishing to attend at short notice!

Please ask around, ask your friends, rellies - we would love to see any new (and old) faces!

No proxy registration taken....it must be made by the person wishing to attend. All 3 classes are still on offer for the new person wishing to attend.

The person registering will need to pay within the week of registering and payment will need to be the full amount - $150. If the registered person would like to attend the classes we would appreciate payment at this time also. Please note that the $150 attending fee is non refundable.

The class details and costs can be seen here -

Mel Forbes Class
Meredith Treloar Class
Amanda Hall Class


This will be offered to the first person responding in a DEFINITE acceptance and will be confirmed after payment is cleared.

Failure to pay by the due date (one week) will forfeit the position and it will be reoffered.

Please email Meredith if interested ASAP at john.treloar@bigpond.com

We hope some lucky person can join us for a weekend full of fun, friendship and of course scrapbooking.

Thanks
Meredith, Sue, Amanda
e2c girls.

Sue- colour challenge

Here it is....there is some green, blue, brown and PINK! Love these new thicker 'Delight' alphas, bit smaller than most thicker fonts, which i feel is very user friendly.

So good to see lots of scrapping here on e2c!!

Amanda - photo challenge

Ok i have two 'photo bombs' to share.

This one is very old - maybe circa 1982 ish.

I was in Brownies and going for my photography badge. The criteria was a photo of a pet and I had lined my sister Meagan up to take a shot of her holding our pet corgi on the leash out on our back lawn.

While i was fiddling with the camera settings, Mum and Ryan came out. Mum was in the middle of toilet training Ryan and according to the look on his face things were not going well this day.

By the time i snapped, i had accidently moved off my subject and happened to get more of the action behind her in the shot!

This photo ALWAYS makes me laugh. I could look at it 500 times and laugh every single time. Maybe because of how innocent the whole situation was or maybe because of that hilarious look on my brothers face - all the time with his pants down!

Ryan had a shockingly bad temper when he was little (strange because he is sooooooo layed back now you have to check for a pulse at times!) and Mum used to say 'Temper control Ryan!' when he was getting all steamed up.

This photo is titled 'Temper Control' in my computer - which also cracks me up.




This next one is supposed to be of G and K but i had a little Piper drop in on the action!

Fun photo challenege - Tiff

Tiff said ... "We went on the Pichi Richie last Easter and I took the camera along. I was just about to shoot the curve of the train as it was going around the bend when Kym popped his head out of the window next to me. Not like him to be the centre of attention LOL!!"


Thanks Tiff!! Hope you managed to get the curve!! At least he looks pleased with himself!!! LOL

Fun photo challenge - Jenny

Jenny sent in this photo bomb ...

"trying to organise the boys for a dress up display - Sam had to be silly"

Very cute Jenny!! I'm guessing a convict, a army man and a pilot ... am I close??!

Tiff - colour challenge

Tiff has stamped her title onto a brown paper bag, cut around it and then scrunched the whole thing. When sticking it to the page she only applied adhesive here and there - leaving the textured, crumpled look.

Very clever Tiff! Nice work with the colour challenge!

Sue's Sketch - Meredith

I discovered today that using this punch ...

on both sides of a strip of paper, but off setting the second side results in a ric rac effect!!

This punch is by Stampin' Up.

Fun Photo challenge - Sandra

Sandra was quick off the mark with this one ...


She said "Recently Teagan and I had a bit of fun with the camera and I actually got in front of the camera instead of being behind it! Trixie our dog decided she wanted to be in on the fun too!"


Great start ... photo hog dog!!! Great expression on your face Sandra!!

Fun Photo challenge

Okay ... so I was reading the latest Notebook magazine yesterday and saw a "word play" (p. 31) that we could get some examples sent in for a fun photo challenge!




PHOTO-BOMB!!



"to drop into a photo unexpectedly; to jump into a picture just before it is taken."

This is not the best of examples ... Lachlan running through the background of this photo of Hannah.

I was sure I had a better example on the computer somewhere but couldn't find one!!

Have a look through your photos and send in your picture ... it may be a photo that you would normally delete!!

peeps at our retreat so far...

LOTS - absolute mountains of stuff going on behind the scenes but here is a couple of photos i can share:

This place is resembling a post office with the amount of parcels arriving daily! Very exciting ripping the bags open! I am sure our local postman is wondering what the heck i am buying!! Luckily we have a insider who may be able to tip him off a bit (thanks Janice!)

and these are another little peep at what we are up to... single handedly contributing to the world wide shortage of Kraft cardstock!!

Hmmmmmm wonder what that is all about?!!!

I will post more sneaky peeps as they emerge :)

Ali - colour challenge

A very warm welcome to Ali M from Roxby! YAY we have a new person to play with!!

Hi Amanda,

I'm always thinking that I'm going to join in and do the E2C challenges,but never do so here I am, I've actually done the colour challenge.

Let's see how I go with the others... See you at the retreat, I'm looking forward to it very much!!

Ali

This is great Ali - thanks so much for joining in. LOVE the mix of colours, your fantastic brackets and nice bold title...........ummm speaking of titles i reckon i spy a little bit of matting there too. So technically you have done TWO challenges in one! That jade/teal thickers title just pops against the black matting as well!

Very cute photo at one of our e2c -ers fav. places! WOW at your amazing paint work.

Thanks Ali. Can't wait to meet you in March and keep those layouts coming until then!

Sue's sketch - Jenny

Jenny said ...

"Here are the challenges. Ellie's page is the Sue's sketch and the other two are the colour challenge but I just can't decide where to put the blue brads.

I had a lot of fun doing these, got me beat where my inspiration went to, but I am back, I hope this time."

Lovely digi layouts Jenny! Gorgeous pictures of Ellie!!

I can't decide about the brads in the second two either, keep scrolling up and down to look!! I think I like the horizontal ones!!

Great to see you back Jenny!! It's been a while so I hope the mojo continues to flow!!

Janice - Sue's sketch

Hi Amanda,

A challenge done at last.
Thanks for the inspiration Sue.

Janice

Very clever Janice ! Great idea for a photo and layout. There is a LOT of stuff to take to cricket each week let along get those cricket whites so damn WHITE.

love the range of colours you have used - perfect! And that sketch looks totally made for your page.

great work.

Sandra - colour challenge

Sandra has wowed me again!

she says:

Blog Hog Alert!!!!!

*Sandra sneaks in and puts another layout on Amanda's table*

Sorry girls, but I have another layout using the same papers thus fulfilling the colour challenge criteria... also dabbled in the 6x12 again.

such fun.

sorry for being such a blog hog!!

Hope you are all having a great weekend!

Sandra

xx

Don't apologize Sandra. This is awesome and i really love how you have incorperated those album covers onto the page - pure brilliance!

Colour challenge ... Meredith

Matt title ... Meredith

Sandra - colour challenge cards!

Hello again Amanda

From now on whenever I scrap a layout I am going to scrap some cards out of the scrap paper and embellishments before I put them all away.

These 2 cards came together super quick, and hopefully my card stash will grow as well!So a couple of cards for the colour challenge.

Great idea and inspiration Sandra. (omg at those beautiful roses). Meredith and I were only talking the other day about doing 'last minute' cards and how we should be more organized!

Again love the freshness of the colours!

Sandra -

Hi Amanda!

Here is my entry for the colour challenge.

Found this tricky at first, but once I found the right papers and a sketch from over at PageMaps, it all fell into place quite quickly!

I love this photo!.. Funny thing is if it wasn't for the fact that I loved the interaction between the two of them I might of deleted it because of the flare! LOL didn't realise back then it was going to be the next big thing in photography!

Bye for now

Sandra

This is awesome Sandra. I love how fresh this colour combo it - it almost looks like scoops of gelati ready for eating! Great candid photo - those ones between siblings are the best aren't they?! Those flower cut outs down the side looks fabulous and so effective.

Thanks for taking part and cranking some life into the blog again Sandra!

Tiff - all in one

This fulfils 4 challenges. Something soft, something hard, this months colour challenge, Sue's sketch challenge and the matted title challenge. I think I've got it all covered. *wink*

The something soft is the blue felt and the pink hearts that I cut from an old pair of Annie's flannie Pj's. The hard bit is the pin, the 3 beads in the left corner and the strip of pink bling. I've turned Sue's sketch upside down and rearranged it a fair bit. The 2 pieces of green PP are instead of the 2nd and 3rd photo requirement. But the basis of the sketch is still there. The colour challenge happened to work perfectly with this LO and it also happened to be the one I was about to start on anyway. And as you can see the title is matted in green.

And I just wanted to give a shout out to Janice. Her challenge LO for the 'something soft, something hard' was picked up for publication. WAHU to her. I think it may have slipped under the radar of those who follow the e2c blog as it happened over the mad December month. So I would like to congratulate her and a personal goal achieved.


cheers
t

Wow those colours really pop Tiff. Great job. LOVE the effect of your matted title - it really adds some pizzazz. LOL at that jumbo hat.

And well done to Janice. Fantastic and exciting news re. being published. I think we have had a lot of success stories with publications on here haven't we? Great that we all are able to encourage each other to be brave enough to submit - because the work here is always fabulous! I can't wait to see it in print Janice!

Sandra - Sue's sketch and matt title

Hi Amanda,

I have cheated a bit and have done 2 challenges in one.

I started off doing Sue's sketch but when it came to the title I found the pink felt alphas a bit dull, so I put some white foam alphas on top and voila! 2nd challenge completed as well!

Sandra

This is great Sandra - fabulous use of Sue's sketch (omg i love love love your handwriting on those photos!!) and clever you layering your thickers on....thickers! Loving the texture on your page also!

Fabulous Sandra! Beautiful work and a beautiful bubba.