Karen - Sue's sketch

Karen Says -

I have finally gotten to a LO. This is Sues sketch, mind you I always start off planning to be true to the sketch but end up wandering off the track a bit!! You can sort of see, if you squint!!

Oh Karen...that brown with the BG stripe is delicious. And that little birdy rubon coming out from the calendar card is a sweet touch. Love your little highlights in red and i really need to know what kind of alpha you have used for the main title - got to have some of those!

Glad to see you back in here. Hope all has settled back to normal at home and you can fit a little bit more scrapping in. Great work.

Sandra - colour challenge

gee wizz - my inbox has been overflowing with pages lately! It is great to see so much action and support on the blog - well done everyone!

Sandra has sent in her page for the colour challenge. Love that background - so bright and vibrant. The other colours just seem to set it all off brilliantly. Those flowers coming off the blue strip = stunning. Also love how the main cluster - photo, title, date and journalling is all at the bottom. Very clever design which works so well here. It has a nice sense of balance to it all.

Great job Sandra

Colour combo - Meredith's LO

Houndstooth challenge ... Meredith

Marika - sue's sketch

goodness we are all getting so much inspiration from Sue's sketch. Marika has rotated this for a classic black, white and pink layout about her precious fairy! I am also loving how you trimmed that photo down - nice a skinny. I have also noticed that this is a bit of an incoming trend so you are right onto it Marika!

Love your choice of papers against that pink - striking!

Amanda - colour challenge

Ali E's tip of the day

3. White cardstock is always a solid choice for the foundation of your layout. I love it. It is my go-to color of choice.


How ironic that Marika sent in her page on white cardstock today when Ali's tip is about exactly that. I agree with her that white is always a great choice - some may say safe choice - but i just love how it makes every colour pop. White can also give the sense of space, without the busy-ness of fancy patterned paper. If you seem to be stuck for a page idea - pull out a sheet of white cardstock and start from there.

Marika - colour challenge

Marika has sent in an amazing page. She says -

Just finished my colour challenge a lift from Ali Edwards CK April 09. Just loved it and realised I had the same paper

I can see why you lifted this one Marika - stunning! Love the embellishments in a line under the journalling....they seem totally perfect for the page. Again i keep feeling that those colours are so funky, happy and fresh.

lovely work and a great answer to the colour challenge.

Ali E's tip of the day

2. Examine how you look through the lens of your camera . What do you really see? What are you looking for? Next time you pick up your camera let yourself play a bit more by looking up, down, to the sides, etc. of your subject. There are so many interesting things out there in the world. I am particularly interested in the ways things meet together - people, places, things.

ok well this is a big extention from our perspective challenge. Re-think how you will take that shot = zoom in and get the really important bits.

Just for a laugh ...

Okay we love to take photos and scrap them.

But these ones would be so funny to scrap!!

http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/

Make sure you look at quite a few of the cakes ... "pole dancers rock" really made me laugh!!


Then make sure you take a look at this site with photos that would be funny to scrap ...

http://awkwardfamilyphotos.com/

Sue's in - with colour combo

Hi there everyone,

When i saw Amanda's colour combo challenge....it got me inspired!! And sitting home quietly on this blowy Saturday....i have been busy getting out papers and scrapping away!

What beautiful colours to put together....and i was inspired by a layout i saw in Scrapbook Trends April 09, by Laura Vegas. I have used cream instead of a yellow. I got a lovely surprise from Meredith......the circle Heidi Swapp stickers, which goes just perfect with this page!

Catchya next time

Sue xx

Ali E's tip of the day

I dont really read many blogs and am not really into following scrapping 'celebs'. (whatever the hell that is)

However i just found these tips on Ali Edwards' blog and i just love them. There are 20 tips so i will try and remember to do one tip a day. I find myself nodding and agreeing with every one.

Todays Ali Tip:

1. Get over what you "think" it should be and just allow it to be ("it" will be something different for every person).

back tomorrow for another.

Photos of you and yours ...

An American woman and scrapbooker, Aleida Franklin, was sadly killed in a car crash last year.

She encouraged others to take photos of themselves with their children.

So have a look at Emilie Ahern's blog

http://www.em-il-ie.com/2009/04/aleidas-challenge.html

From Emily's blog ...

Aleida said "she made it a goal to take a picture of herself with her children at least once every month. And that to use excuses about how we look, as women, is ridiculous, since our children will never care what we looked like, but only that we had physical evidence of the bond between mother and child. "

Aleida tragically and unexpectedly passed away last September, leaving 2 small children and a grieving husband. After she passed I thought of how those children must feel to have those precious photographs.

So make sure you take some photos of you with your children.

Here is one I snapped at Easter time 2009, of me and Hannah ...

These next two were taken by Jack and Lachlan in September 2007 ... I don't look so great but hey I have some fun photos of me and the boys.

Lachlan was only 4 1/2 ... just make sure the camera strap is around their neck!!

Some times we need scrap pages of us in the photos too!!

surprise challenge - colour combo

i love this combination - it seems so happy and fresh. You can use black, white, brown or kraft also if you need.

I noticed this group of colours used on this cover layout on the Scrapbooks etc magazine in April which was designed by Janna Wilson.

(sorry for the small pic but i couldn't find anything bigger online)

you will notice in that page that instead of using equal parts of the colours (and perhaps making the page overwhelming) that the creator has used mostly yellow, then green with a tinge of aqua. The red border is basically used to give the whole layout that 'pop' or 'wow' factor.

See how you get on using these fresh, funky colours on your next page. We would love to see what you come up with.

Sandra - photo challenge

Here is Sandra's cute photo for the 'looking down' perspective photo challenge.

she says -

Final challenge done!I have to admit I took this photo awhile ago. It is one of my favourites... it is not technically a great photo but I love the memories attached. They were having a ball tickling each other.

What a great moment captured Sandra - you can really feel the love! You really can almost here the giggles just by looking at the photo.

fabulous!

Tracey - Sue's sketch

Now i am thinking that this is what everygirl needs around town - a set of handknitted bathers. Although i can see that they may work better for smaller children. Perhaps a cutoff age of 11 or 12 to stop any stray nipples poking through. Obviously Kaye had a VERY good knitter in her family - as you certainly wouldn't want any dropped stitches in your bathers!

Tracey says -

I have done another layout using Sue's sketch turned on its side. The journalling says 'Kaye Gregory at 14 months in her handknitted bathers at Henley Beach 1950'.

What a brilliant photo Tracey - how precious! Just have to love those random black and white snaps that are 'older' and have so much story to tell. Your collection of flowers, little tags, gorgeous rich colours and that little oval with the date really add to the vintage / heritage feel. I bet Kaye would love to see this one!

Sandra - houndstooth

Oh my goodness. Have a look at what this VERY clever and VERY talented lady has whipped us up. SOME HOUNDSTOOTH CARDS.

Check out the perfection of them - the female images are just gorgeous Sandra! I can't stop looking at all the little details : the buttons, flowers, scallops, circles, rhinestones and lace.

Totally awesome Sandra. Gawd you rock woman!

Sue - houndstooth

Finally a page is complete!! Once i found a quiet moment, this page has come together quickly. Just one of those special moments caught with a camera that is too precious to just pop amongst all other photos.

Amanda - reuse and recycle

ok here is my late entry for Meredith's go green challenge.

I worked/fiddled/procrastinated a lot on it yesterday at Leah and Lindy's Scrap day and it looks nothing like i originally thought it would!

The round circle at the bottom is the title - The funeral.

The pink thing with circles missing is from an old peice of Heidi Swapp packaging which housed chipboard circles which have all either fallen out and lost or been used. In fact that is a bit of my stash that is at least 3 years old. The paper inside the circles is punched out of the sheet that you get in the front of a collection of papers - just tiny mini examples of what the pack includes. In this case it is from a really yummy collection of October Afternoon papers.

I have also noticed a new trend emerging which is to use the same photo multiple times on your page - repetition. I wanted to try this so used this picture that i snapped of G and K before heading off to the funeral last Friday.

The border is done by stitching two straight lines and using a un-picker to rip through to reveal the under sheet of cardstock. I blatently copied this idea from a page Meredith did ages ago and i loved the effect.

Sorry to rabbit on but i had a lot of questions about it all yesterday!

Maryanne - houndstooth

oh wow wow wow.

Why is it i love everything you do Maryanne? You just have that *knack* of putting exactly the right things and the right amount of right things on the page.

she says -

dont think I have any houndstooth in my stash, so have done a hybrid
page,searched and found a pattern.
theres some red and white up in the top left corner, and black and white in the right bottom corner, very teeny both of them but they are there....scanner has cut off my edges again.

this is absolutely adorable. Look at this one quickly girls - i dont think it will be on display for very long! Your digital elements along the side are so effective. And my-ho-my how young and in love you two look - whit wheel (wolf whistle!)

totally stunning!