i am back :)

Hiya all!

woohoo i am back online after nearly a week! phew.

I have been busy scrapping so will show them in here now, go cook some tea and be back to comment on all the fantastic work that has gone on while i have been AWOL.

bit of the bottom cut off here...

bigger versions are on my blog.

The last photo is of a mini book for my brother's birthday - he is 30 today and on Friday i am going to Melbourne to see him! This holds lots of photos, pages for birthday messages, notes from G, K and P and a CD copy of a home movie of Ryan.

Geez it is good to be back online :)

SBT

Scrapbook Trends fans. want the mag cheap. check this out.

found this on my forum friends blog and asked her if I could share it with you girls in mind.


https://scrapbooktrends.securesites.net/subscribe_online1.html

It's monthly at $10 which means you get every magazine as well as all the back issues - Every magazine. Or if you click on the above link you will be able to chose what options you want and can just buy the magazine you like. For an extra $5 USA you can get access online to every single on of their back issues. I kid you not.So for around $20 AUST dollars you can get every ideas book, card trends, Simply Handmade, beads, stamping and god knows all of their other books.So I joined up immediately of course and will be putting all of my new and older books on Ebay as of tonight.Bargain go look here http://www.scrapbooktrendsmag.com/ and you can download straight away Scrapbook mini albums.

Thanks Flick.

Markia's p and n

yay. Marika has answered the call. Luv the colour combo. Bold, masculine, perfect. Pin fits in perfectly.
and the little heart, date and star button balance it nicely.

boy at play

Sandra's jumped in. Well sort of. Read below.

Finished this layout last night.... has got no pins or needles.. but my butt did sitting on the cold bench today watching the footy lol

tee hee Sandra. Thought your comment worthy of being here. Great collage. lots of pics with plenty of white space to balance it all out.

Challenge 33 - pins and needles.

It's Friday.
Yay
It's raining.
Yay.
It's time for a new challenge.
Yay.

what can u do with pins and needles.

hat pins, sewing pins, map pins.

sew with a needle, by hand or machine.

whatever takes your fancy.

don't get pins and needles in your butt thinking about.
:-D
t

ps. send your lo's to me as the others girls are all away, off line or enjoying their grandsons atm.

move over, Marika's here

the kids have been tree climbing in the holidays had to get some snaps

Saw a couple of these LO's being born last Friday night at Sheoak Cottage Scrap Nite.

this one is my fave. The rubon arc is very eyecatching. Markia, your colour co ordination is lovely.

maryanne's snap

I enjoy school holidays, lots of just hanging around the house, and sleep ins with no routines, or having to hurry teenagers out of bed in the morning[hard work].



most of this school holidays the boys have been focused on footy, getting ready for the first game , training, just practising their kicking with each other and friends etc.Also have the shed partway set up,so they have the xbox and tv with the stereo surround set up in there.They have been enjoying a new xbox game with the sound cranked way up

lol Maryanne. those trackie daks are so close to black in the pic and the red shirt, I just knew it had to be a pic from you.

crikey, Kylie you are busy

Here's a snap from yesterday ... 'School Holiday Fun' - the kids and Dad cooking marshmallows on the fire we made for lunch. I enjoy having the kids home on school holidays and try and spend quality time with them.

We often have a simple barby somewhere on the farm with snags in bread followed by marshmallows, such a quick and easy lunch but so enjoyable ! I've been entertaining the kids with of some of the things I used to enjoy on my school holidays when I was younger ... play dough, cooking, painting, mud pies, gardening, bike riding, footy and cricket in the back yard, playing with the animals (we've gained 2 pups this week so it's kinda busy around here!) and the odd DVD here and there ... I don't like to plonk the kids in front of the telly too much though, there's so many more fun things to do outside ! It's been great these school holidays as Ted's been around (he's normally off working in Edillilie during the week) so the kids have also been able to tinker around in the shed and under the airseeder helping Dad get ready for seeding.
Happy Holidays !!

sandra's snap

School holidays usually means later nights and pushing the kids out of bed in the morning (well Teagan anyway) :)And of course sorting out the clothes, buying new clothes etc etc.But one thing the kids look forward to during the holidays is seeing more of Nanna.Due to school and work commitments they don't see her as often as they would like and they love catching up with her during the holidays.So here is a photo of the kids with their Nanna. They just love her to bits... and vice versa ;)

thanks Sandra. Just knew you be on the ball ;)

quick pic mini challenge

rito.

lets ramp up some action.

While Amanda is off line and Granny Sue is with her newest grandson and R, and lucky Meredith is off to a sewing retreat shortly, send your quick pic challenge to me. Address on the right side bar.

take a pic of what school holidays mean to you.

is it

1. a mountain of washing.

2. PJ clad people at 11am (it is here now and then)

3. is it bodies on the floor with their mates chilling in front of the big screen.

4. could it be that the computer is ALWAYS occupied when u want it.

what's your impression of having the family home from school.

mine is later than normal bedtimes and sleep ins. LURVE em.

Kids in bed normally by 8pm on school nights, usually in bed by 9pm during the school holidays.

(doesn't always mean they sleep in tho) lol

email pics as a small file please and we'll pop them up asap along with your explanation of its importance to you.

A short interuption to usual service ...

Just to let you know that Amanda is "Internet - less" at the moment until further notice

so if you have emailed her a layout please resend it to me so I can post it for you!!

She was shaking slightly when I saw her today but was in denial I think

... she didn't take up my offer to check her emails on my computer ;-)

inspire me.

hmmm. had a good long hard think about this one.

And I think my photoshop is the most influential thing that has a hold over me. Oh and my printer. It doesn't matter where or what grabs my interest, as long as I can adapt it to scrapping, that is what's important to me.

AND I found some absolutely gorgeous brushes that I just had to have on the www. The first time I have actually coughed up $$ for downloads. find them here.

So I had use them straight away. So that swayed this LO which I have printed the pic and the brushes directly onto the cardstock. You can do exactly the same with 8.5x11 inch format in an A4 printer. I always to a fast greyscale test print on reflex paper first to make sure it's all how it should be and then use that as a template to attach the PP or card onto.

:)

Sandra

Well this www inspiration challenge must have you all thinking very hard.

Here is the first entry for the challenge and she has outdone herself (again)

Sandra says -

Here is my entry for the www dot challenge :)

My inspiration was a stamp.I went blog surfing recently and came upon Sonia's blog... I think you have a link to her blog on your blog. She uses stamps on her layouts.. not inking stamps but postage stamps... which got me thinking... I had a sheet of stamp stickers in my stash.

I also had photos which went with the era on the stamps (the forties) and the layout evolved from there. Google imaged 1940's posters and got the colours for my layout there.. otherwise I would never have thought of yellow! (not a colour that I use).

I have also set myself a mini challenge which I saw on the www. A forum member (scrapbooking memories I think) set herself a challenge where she would not buy ANYTHING until she had completed 20 layouts.Well I have set myself 10 layouts. do not have the will power for 20) A Day At Brighton is layout number 19 to go. ;)

and its difficult already!!

wow at all those cool old photos - what a brilliant find! You have showcased them excellently Sandra - the buckles and colours are fantastic. This page really pops and reflects the era perfectly.

Thanks for all your hard work surfing the web Sandra! Top work!

What is your favourite?

Wondering what everyone's favourites are..........

1. Magazine (can be scrapping or otherwise) and please share why.

2. font and where to find it.



My favourite magazine would have to be Scrapbook Trends. This is an American publication that Meredith and I stumbled upon when in Melbourne on our retreat adventure. This magazine is my favourite because the layouts featured in them are so beautiful, balanced and well designed. To me they are the absolute benchmark of scrapbooking. Another thing that i love about the magazine is the photography of the layouts - STUNNING! It really puts the Aussie mags to shame with their amazing true to life colours and display of the layouts.


My favourite font would have to be Type Ra (of course!) I started using this font quite a bit many years ago and still love it. It just seems to be 'me' although that sort of type font is everywhere you look now days. I get all my fonts free from da-font. I like how type ra is a little bit grungy as well........totally me :)


I would be interested to read your comments on your favourites!

Well i know 3 out of 4 E2C committee members are...

out scrapping at Leah and Lindy's new shop. Guess who the one at home is? LOL.


Today i finished off a layout i have had on the go for some time. It is a little different and used a technique that i had not tried before.


I got my inspiration from here - mooo where the Silhouette Canvas Art section is. I decided that i could easily (*cough cough*) make my own girls silhouette out of a photo with a bit (*cough cough*) of fiddling in photoshop. Well after many hours in photoshop fiddling, i was pretty happy with the result and i think i can tell it is my kids really quite well. I was scared turning the photo into silhouette would lose their 'personality' but i dont think it did at all!





(i should also add that mooo is a fundraiser for the Cummins Child Parent Centre and if ordering from their amazing site there is some section where you add your fundraising charity and they donate a percentage of sales..........i think that is right - Marika or Kylie please elaborate or correct me!!!!!!)










title is borrowed from here

The distressed folding thing is also a technique which is new to me but apparently is fairly big in the digi scrapping world at the moment. Inspiration from this clever chickadee





A couple of years ago i was also inspired by a website design. It was Clair Bremner the Melbourne Childrens photographer (also a fabulous friend). Her website has changed since then but the opening page was set out in a series of little squares and photos. I loved it and it inspired me to create this -

So since i am the only one home tonight i thought i would set everyone a little challenge to see what you can find that inspires you on the www. NOT really talking about sketches or scraplifting here but it may be colours, design, a font or just a series of photos.

Go for a surf and see if you can catch some inspiration.

MIA me ...

Hi all,

Been busy with things but finally finished off a couple of layouts ...

This layout has actual Lego (don't tell Lachlan!!).

I also used the Bazzill swiss dots cardstock (black) to resemble the dots of the Lego pieces.

The alphas are the Collections chipboard.

I am loving the Jenni Bowlin calenders too, so far I've used Jan, Feb and April ;-)

The title on this one ... some sticker alphas that I have had for ages and they match up really well to look like cursive writing ... they are called "Big Honkin' Stickers" by Mustard Moon.

Trish's here!!

It's been a bit quiet in here, is everyone busy enjoying this lovely weather and the school holidays??

But Trish just popped these two lovely layouts across to me to share with you all...... they are great Trish and glad someone finding time to do some scrapping.

ALL WET - loving these papers!!!


LIFE'S SO GREAT- love ya buttons, oohhh.. and i would so love a walk along a beach!!

Thanks for them Trish....and hoping to see some more soon. I will be away for the next couple weeks....heading down to help Rach out, her hubby is a fisherman and heading out to sea Sunday, so i will be getting lots of cuddles of Mace ....and doing lots of running with Evan!! :) I will try to pop into have a looksee over that time so please send any pages onto the other girls....and the keep the blog a buzzing....

Catchya,

Suexx

just love this Girl

Sandra has been a busy girl, she did this LO and posted it to me yesterday. It is a layout for the puzzlesketches blog which had the had to have the following - 9 squares, a star, and arrow, and some paint. And Sandra's version of this has sure WOW factor, i am sure you will all agree!!

This is just fantastic Sandra, i am loving it all, the colour combo, inked edges, the coffee ring, buttons ....etc,etc... Thanks Sandy!

Waiting

Loving all the action here!! It is great to see all your pages!!

I have a page to share with you all. I finished this LO yesterday, initially i had abit more pink on the page, but now knowing it's a boy, i adjusted it slightly...

Hope you are all having a great weekend!

she's on a roll

holy cow Marika. When youre hot, youre hot. Love Kraft. Just cant go wrong with that stuff. Marika says

the one of molly and dad is a lift from the cover of the latest sm mag great way to use scrap papers

Little Man took my eye. I think its the colour co ordination. the thickers ribbon and PP are all so similar.

using the torn strips with the sewing makes a great border effect in Eli.

top stuff Marika. looking forward to more from you this week.

this week's challenge posted by Sue is to send in whatever you are currently working on. So any medium will be fantastic. on the page, off the page, cards etc.

impeccable manners

lol Sandra.
thanks for the nudge.
A lo of Annie done just before the Easter weekend. I havent been home to do any others but have plenty of photos to work on.

hope your Easter was fantastic.

Cards by Sandra

Sandra has been busy making Beautiful Baby cards! They are just gorgeous Sandra!!

It's a great way to use up those little bits of paper, add a flower or two, a little bit of ribbon, a few words and end results ....a beautiful card!! I always love receiving home-made cards, they are so special!! Lucky people receiving these cards!!

Thanks for sharing them!!

Show 'n tell

Howdy to you girls who are enjoying a quiet Easter home with your families, hopefully you might be getting a little chance to scrap just a 'little'!

How about i set a mini challenge for the next week - share with us some of your latest pages or projects. We all love to see something new and different....and you girls are all inspiring with your scrapping!!

I have been working on my journal, that i started at the retreat, and have finally completed it, so i am going to show you a few pages from it.June page-I have used rub-ons for the title, love those new Kaisercraft Alphas!I added in between the page a cut up plastic card protector page (ones that hold footy cards etc) and i added rub-ons onto it, plus rubons on the page....and inked the edges

September page - i have used some stamps, added some rub-ons, a Jenni Bowlin ticket and inked the edges. I have also added a journal card stitched to some clear transparency in between the pages.

November page- month title have have put some black paper thru the dynmo and sanded the top (good technique Amanda!), mounted it and added a rub-on. There is strips of paper added near the bottom which have been inked before glued and then various rubons added, and another piece of plastic card protector with various rubons added.

So now all i have to do is jot down the things that happen each month. It was a great way to use up mulitple rubons, get those inks out, make a mess and have fun!

Hope to see some of your creations soon.....you can also email me and i can post them for you :)

Suexx

What a Pearler!!

Firstly, I'd like to share with my fellow scrappers, that we have just become grandparents again....to our 5th Grandson!! Mace Jadran Lukin arrived safely on Wednesday 8th April, weighing in at a grand 9lb 3ozs!! Rach and bubby doing well. He is an absolute pearler!!

AND..I also do have a page with some pearls on it to share. I like embellish lightly with pearls, centre of a flower or a just 3 or so for a little added something. For those who may remember, at the retreat i began a 2009 journal, so this is one of the pages from that, using pearls.

And i also wish everyone a Happy & Safe Easter.....enjoying this glorious sunshine with family and friends.....and hope to see you all back here ASAP sharing all your lovely scrapping with us.

Suexx

Marika's made it.

Hi there Marika. What a lovely LO. Even tho they are rhinestones I reckon that will fit the bill.

What a gorgeous choice of PP. Basic Grey is so right for this one. Of course the circle with the rhinestones is a focal point.

I'm not sure if a new challenge is being posted by the team tomorrow as people head off for the Easter weekend. I hope so but I will be away so I would like to say Happy Easter to you all now as I wont be able to otherwise. Have a great family time, lots of photos, and stay safe.

Sandra's crabs.

LOL. I just know you took that the wrong way. tee hee.

Sandra dropped this little gem in my inbox a tick ago.

Look closely. You will spot her crabs. They have tiny little pearls for bodies.

Just how cute are they. And handwriting to boot. Excellent one Sandra.

Karen

WOWEE.

Thanks Karen for listening to my call out in my last post to send in anything new that you have been working on. We love looking and anything you want to show us is inspiring (talking to everyone here!)

Karen says -

Hi Amanda,
I've been a bit flat out at the moment, not getting time to scrap any time soon! :( Anyhow on the Tuesday after the retreat I did this little album, it was simple and easy and I love how it turned out. Just thought Id post it as my "something I've been working on" :).
Cheers
Karen

oh Karen i would love to see the rest of this - i bet it is stunning. Love the colours you have picked, the OA papers are so funky and ideal for our retreat. What a fab momento of a great weekend!

what a pearler

I tell you what. this chick is on the ball. I got a sneak peak via the mobile over the weekend. fits the pearl challenge beautifully.
pearls on the veil and a little pearl flower on the waist line of the bridal gown.

You may not have realised it Tanya but having the placement of photos and the journalling from left to right helps the eye to travel easily across the page. This is called flow. Well done. You have mastered a fundamental rule in scrapping. applies in real life too. You'll start looking at things in a whole new way and think 'hmmm, that's a great idea I could scrap!!'

:)
t

flutterby

look out. this butterfly has a pearly (cough) after burner LOL. I think I mean flight trail. Or is it flight path.

A pearly card ...

Hi all!!

Thanks for the reminder ... well, nudge Amanda ... had forgotten about the pearls on the card!!

Using the gorgeous new Cosmo Cricket Girl Friday papers.

Maryanne.

She says it has been a while since she scrapped and boy oh boy have we missed her on here!!

Love the grungy look teamed up with the bright papers - brilliant. The pearls you have used on here look great - the black ones look excellent on a boy page!

What a cutie Jaxon was........i bet he loves seeing all these pages with his little bubba face on them!

Great work Maryanne. So glad you picked up the scissors again.

Hope to see a few more pearl pages. I do know of a FANTASTIC card out there that 'someone' made using peals to highlight scalloped edges - it was very clever so hopefully she drops in and shows it off.

some interesting reading

Hi girls.



Things have been bit quiet in here!!! Where are all the pearl layouts - i hope to see some soon :) Dont forget this blog isn't exclusively for blog challenges - we would LOVE to see anything new you have been working on. If you would like to show us ANYTHING please forward it to one of us (emails on sidebar)


I spent a very interesting day today infront of the computer collating all the info from our retreat feedback forms.



Just some interesting facts that we can share with you.



* 43 surveys were returned from 50 retreat go-ers

* 43 ladies said that they had a great time on the retreat (YAY)


* 43 ladies said that they were happy with our onsite (Val and Lorrae) catering


some improvements we could make were listed -

• get rid of the mice


• 50's and 60's music


• change dinner format for Saturday night


• keep having retreats


• make the weekend last longer /more time!


• have a photochopy of the finished class project on each table


• option of not having to stay the night


• more instruction on class photo requirements prior to the retreat


• needing more free time to scrap.


• get two masseusses (not sure if that word even comes as a plural!)

And basically the vast majority were pleased with the setup (some stating it was a better vibe/atmosphere because of the table placement).

There was not one negative comment about the classes being run in the shed and everyone who did a class liked the powerpoint display as an extra aide.

This is great news for us. I thought the retreat went so well in 2008. The feedback we recieved then was also very very positive. For us to actually IMPROVE on something that was good in the first place is brilliant. Thanks to all who took the time to fill out their surveys. These responses help us to know what the attendees are thinking and what we can work on changing.

The main two problems for 2009 were the hotel tea and the appearance of Stuart Little and a few mates. Rest assured the format for Sat. night tea WILL change for 2010.

Here is my answer to Tiff's challenge. Technically they are not pearls - but Kaiser make them and they are called droplets.....and are fairly new on the scene. I am not a pearly or bling-y type of person so this is my page. (yep it is 6x12 inch - i didn't stretch out the image!)

Challenge 32 - pearls

It's Friday.
wahu.
bring on the weekend.
Bring on the new challenge.

I would love to see what you can do with pearls.
Since KaiserCraft released them a while ago in so many colours and oh so cheap, they have become very popular. I have seen black pearls recently. Very masculine for little fella's pages.

Let's be creative. Lets see how many different ways to use pearls.

looking forward to lots of response to this one.

this is one I have done for the challenge. Pearls in the centres of the flowers and pearl ribbon slides.

Kate.

A warm welcome back to Kate.

She sent me this page which damn near broke my heart. Last week Kate had an unfortunate incident with their pup Sid. Basically cars and dogs are bad news........they dont go together too well. Sometimes these little pups dont realize this and in a very quick second things can go very very badly.

I know that Kate loves her pets and that she has cried buckets over this. Chook - it isn't your fault. It is just one of those bad things that happens to us all at times. Dogs are so faithful and forgiving. He loves you all and I am certain that he is so thankful that you all gave him a second chance and got vet help for him.

The emotion in this page is obvious. Love the colour choices, the buttons and the journalling strips. And the long title is just so sad.

Hope you are all doing ok Kate.

Introducing Tanya C

TA DA.

we have a new scrapper on board. Tanya started scrapping 2 hours ago. Literally. This is her first ever LO.

And wowsers. Not bad for the first creation. Not bad at all. Noice stripes and journal strips. And I see you have mastered the art of journaling with the computer and printer already.

Well done chick. I look forward to your next masterpiece.

t

tiff 2

hiya.





A long title for the current challenge. This challenge has certainly got the juices flowing for everyone.

Any new faces out there who would like to say hi or have a go at a challenge?? We are friendly mob here and we don't bite. If any previous ones grab your attention (categories on the right side bar) give it a shot. never too late for sub.
;)
tiff