A Challenge from Tiff

As promised here is another challenge....and this time it is one from Tiff. And boy oh boy what a challenge it is! A blind scrapping challenge....i will leave it to Tiff to explain..

So,have fun with it and look forward to seeing all your pages!!

HI Sue.

This is my blind scrapping challenge. There is no example with this challenge. The idea is for each Scrapper to interperet the instructions in her own way and pull a LO together with her own perceptions. Not mine. Usually everyone's LOs are fairly different even tho everyone has the same set of instructions. I have 'borrowed' this challenge from Mandy at Scrap Therapy. www.teacupofscrapisms.blogspot.com
I strongly recommend that you print this out and have it by your elbow as you create!!!

the ingredients are

MATERIAL LIST
1 photo – no bigger than landscape 10x15cm
1 cardstock or background plain paper
1 contrasting pattern paper 1 scrap contrasting plain paper (perhaps an offsetting colour) approx 3x5in
2 x small book print pages(can be torn from a book) and/or music paper (I’ve used one of each) 1 ricrac approx 14cm
1 braid/trim/lace (whichever suits) approx 20cms
2 small embellies (hearts/flowers etc) approx 3x3cm or 3x2cm –ish
Alpha for a 2 word title
double sided tape or tape runner, circle punch, glue, sander or distressor and ink.

Instructions are
STEP ONE Using cardstock or background paper – tear a strip off the top – you can make this to your desired size whether it be just under your 12x12 or 10x12 (I’ve done this size) or to the standard 8.5in size – so it looks landscape. slight ‘wobbly’ tear is fine.

STEP TWO Using your patterned paper, you will be tearing (a contrasting or similar tear) along the top BUT you need to make sure that all sides measure 1cm smaller all round from the edge of your background paper. THEREFORE, cut down two of the vertical sides 1cm in from the edge on both sides (or 2cms on one side – depending on pattern of paper) (there is one ONE torn edge – the top – the others are CUT) ONCE you have done this, then place it on your background paper with a 1cm border on the three sides INCLUDING the bottom and tear along the top – a distance according to your taste (1-3cms – or varying degrees of this) If you are doing a 8.5in landscape – it would be wise to use approx no more than 1cm. Sand, distress and ink your sides and bottom straight edges then stick pattern paper to background paper.

STEP THREE Layer your two book print/music pages one over the top of the other with the underneath one peeking out to the side and a little above the top page, (lower page is slightly bigger then the top page) – stick to the left side of the LO. You can tear and roll the edges of the top piece a little – make a little shabby. You may want to ink the edges?

STEP FOUR Overlap your photo as the 3rd layer on top of these two book prints – Sand, distress or ink if you like.

STEP FIVE Stick your ricrac down the left side of the photo vertically

STEP SIX Run some double sided tape on the underneath of your braid/trim/lace and pinch into little gathers and stick it along the left side of the ricrac running it the same way vertically. It should be about a cm longer each end than the ricrac

STEP SEVEN Glue your two little embellies on the top left hand corner of the photo overlapping the photo, ricrac and onto the trim.

STEP EIGHT Place your title one word on top of the other word to the right of the photo near the bottom of the page.

STEP NINE Cut out a butterfly (or a figure that is appropriate for you LO) from your scrap piece of paper – the offsetting colour scrap. ( Bella glitter butterfly paper as a template about right) you can freehand draw them and cut out or use a punchie. If you have a boy- how about a bug, bee or bird, star for eg. Stick just at or above the top right hand corner of the photo. You still need a little bit of the same scrap paper for the next step.

STEP TEN Punch a half circle (or draw and cut out) from the same scrap paper about 2inches in diameter as a journaling block and stick just under the top book/music printed page towards the bottom on the left of the trim. AND then you are ALL finished!

cant wait to see what comes out of this one.

And keep tuned as there will be yet another challenge later this week or maybe next ;).....

Happy Scrapping xx

Another 'i should be busy but am blog surfing' post

and have found this hilarious site

fail blog

very very funny photos.

Tiff - more she

Tiff has used her favourite colour in this one. Saying "She makes the world a better place. Celebrate her.'

Nice work Tiff. The purple certainly looks very you! Cute little size too.

Marika - more she

Marika is one busy lady. 4 small kids and she has started back at work again...so that doesn't leave much scrapping time.

She has created another fantabulous 'she' page which is lovely. The colours are so bright and fresh and i love the craft as background - those colours nearly jump off the page!

lovely work Marika. Thanks for finding the time.

Aren't these quotes inspirational. I am in the middle of my second 'she' page too. If you have done more than one please feel free to send it in!

Amanda - time TRAVEL

Thanks Meredith for reminding me about this funny photo on travel. Yes when we went to Ballarat i was desperate to do this dress up and step back in time type of photo. When we found out the cost involved there were a few hiccoughs but i managed to twist a few arms anyway.

Despite my dorky look on my face i totally LOVED how this turned out. Reasons why include:

• Greg looks quite the regal gentleman,
• We had to haggle and bargin with Kelsey to remove her headband for the shot (this was during the dreaded 'headband harry era' I think she may well be clutching it in her hand in the photo actually.
• LOVE how angelic Piper looks in this. Totally perfect.

I was amazed at how well it turned out considering we had to sit still for a few seconds as it was an old (pinhole?) type camera - i thought this was an impossible ask for Piper but she performed brilliantly.

Very funny and i loved our little jaunt back in time. So another 'travel' photo but not taken by me obviously!

pinky rammer signing in.

Ok if you have ever been short of a few dollars for your scrapping supplies i do have the answer.

go here and make yourself a porn name.

Mine is now Pinky Rammer LOL.

write me a comment and sign it in your porn name........

(only joking about the scrap money making venture - i love scrapping but that is a little extreme!)

Amanda - travel

ok a few from me.

the first is what i was originally going to use - a thinking outside the square type of shot.

When we go to Coffins for our holidays we always do a national park trip with the 4wd. It is heaps of fun and i love those days. This is a 'way' of travel......mode of transport if you will lol.

This next one is of me when i was 15 at Macchu Pichu in Peru. It was the most amazing and magical place i have ever been (so far!) Hopefully one day i can say something along the same lines for Stonehenge and a heap of scottish castles.........

At Meredith's prompting and my laughing at Sandra's shot, i will try and find the Sovereign Hill family shot of ours...it is hilarious.

Tiff's travels ...

"My photo challenge for Travel.

I see an awful lot of this view. I am behind the wheel a fair bit being the kid's taxi driving for their activities. Luckily for me, when we do our trips away, Kym has a hands on attitude and I don't see the steering wheel at all. And that suits me just fine so I can catch up on my scrap mag reading. Oh and referee the kids in the back seat. lol

Tiff"

Ons klein Nederlands meisje Sandra ...

Hi Meredith

so are you ready for a laugh?

This photo was taken in 1988!! I was lucky to spend a year in Holland with my Aunty and Uncle. While I was there I also went to Austria and Germany.LOVED it! Loved it so much I came home and started work straight away to save money to go back and live. Even started the paper work. Then I met DH and the rest is history. But I will go back one day. And would you believe I have not scrapped ONE photo? tsk tsk tsk,

cheers for now
Sandra

Oh my ... aren't those dress up photos priceless.

I think I have one somewhere of when my girlfriend and I went to Richmond in Tasmania in 1988 and I reckon I have seen one at Amanda's house from Ballarat or Bendigo!!

And wow at your travels ... what an amazing experience!! Maybe you will pull a few photos out and scrap them one day ... we'll look forward to that!!

I went here for the translation ... originally "our little Dutch girl Sandra"!!!
http://www.worldlingo.com/en/products_services/worldlingo_translator.html

Sandra's travel trick ...

Hi Meredith

Whenever we travel anywhere I always make sure that Teagan and I take a couple of these and I also make sure I have plenty for on the way home. Going to QLD in July and visiting the theme parks there ... I wonder if the chemist here does a special deal on bulk buys??

cheers for now

Sandra

Oh Sandra ... too funny ... you must have read Amanda's prompt to think a little off from the norm!! Oh and have a blast when you go away ... yahoo!!!

Sandra - she

WOW wow wow. Absolutely amazing. Love absolutely everything about this.....the circular framing around the photo by the vine, crochet flowers and buttons. Another Tiff photo? Fantastic. The pink on the flowers and the blue of the paper - stunning. Very clever idea with the inking of the thickers too - great saving tip and what a great way to get the 'exact' colour you need!

Sandra Says:

Finished this layout today.Lost my mojo for awhile , and I was just pushing papers around... then saw your last tip and thought... 'yep, stop your whining Sandra and just get on with it.'Finally used my prima vine flowers and also used my digital overlay which has been sitting in my misc files for ages.If anyone wants it just let me know in the comments and I will email it to you... it comes as a jpeg file.. sooo easy to use.the quote is she must be somebody special, she is, celebrate her.. you can't quite see it there on the bottom, but its there! Also downloaded new fonts (another new skill for me) and actually used one.. the font I used is called 'As I lay dying'..... lol bright and cheerful name isn't it?Also inked my thickers to match the layout.. they were white before! (something else new) such a great way to save money...Well thats me for now.off to do some housework, lost my mojo for that too. lol

***EDITED TO ADD = congratulations Sandra . Beautiful page that deserves a removed for publication picture!***

Marika - photo challenge

What a classic photo marika.

I know that we can all relate to this - great interpretation of the theme 'travel'.

She says:

Hi Amanda, Just remembered this photo I took of the kids on the way back from Adelaide. Thank god for DVD players our kids travel really well with that.

I think it looks like you are at the whyalla / cowell stretch by the looks on their faces LOL.

Great job.

Sue's travel photo

I have many great photos from various holidays, and my favourite photos i get block mounted to 5 x 7 size and are on my wall above my computer....shots from NT - Ayres Rock, Great Ocean Road VIC, Busselton jetty WA, Movie World QLD etc...

On our last trip....to Cairns and outer areas, i took photos of road signs...which proved to come handy in sorting out photos when i got home....and had many many photos of all the different falls. And at the time my DH thought i was totally crackers!! And this photo reminds me of that moment!

Sue's - Giggle 'n Play

Here's a page 'just of interest' to show you, one that was a challenge over at Scrapboxx, which was to use a patterned background, larger than 4 x 6 photo and the photo had to be imperfect. So i thought yep, i will do this..... i struggle with patterned backgrounds, so this was quite a challenge for me!! I didn't get it into the boxx in time, so here it is. The photo....well, Evan just kept running towards me giggling, hence why his head is cut off (not really imperfect, but oh well).

And 'notice' it is a smaller size too.....something i don't normally do. An inspiration from those Ali tips!! Hope you have found them inspiring, every one of them, i thought ...."yeah...so true"

So maybe you could try one of these too.... the imperfect photos have a story also to tell.

Ali E's tip of the day

20. Go make something right now. Stop whining. Stop coming up with excuses. Start now.

that wraps up all the 20 tips that Ali Edwards shared on her blog. I hope i haven't bored everyone to tears with these....i find them inspirational and i hope someone out there has too.

Thanks to the girls who have left comments on the tips.

Hopefully we will see lots of scrapping flooding into our inbox to show on here as things have been a little quiet of late!

Dont forget our challenges for this month - Sue's Sketch, Quote from the Book of She and the photography challenge. If you have already participated perhaps you would like to do either another layout OR think outside the square a little for the travel photography challenge. Get out your camera and get creative!

You might like to send in a picture of something that you have been working on at the moment - totally random and unrelated to the challenges. We love seeing what others have been making!

Don't panic - we wont let your scrapping mojo rest as I am certain that there are another one or two challenges just around the corner!

Book of She ... Meredith

This quote stood out to me when I read through the quotes and I immediately thought of this series of photos I took on a weekend away in April at a stitching retreat.

Ali E's tip of the day

19. Create less. Rather than doing a bunch of layouts just for the sake of filling up an album, spend more time on just a few stories that really have meaning for you and your family

Scrapping is such a personal thing. I know scrappers who scrapbook every photo they have ever taken. If you want to do that - great.

I dont.
I do not have time or the money to waste to be bothered scrapping photos that are crappy or have no significance in my life. As Ali has suggested above, i concentrate on the guts of my life - not every single waking moment. And it isn't always the nice fluffy stuff either! This is how *I* scrapbook.

Again if you do not agree - well that is good too. This craft is such a personal thing and that is the great thing about it. How we do it, the process and the end product is different for everyone and that is WONDERFUL.

But if you want to streamline your scrapping take note of Ali's tip today.

I have also read where she writes about scrappers who scrap chronologically........and there are plenty of ladies who do this. There is always this catch cry of 'oh but i am so many years behind'. Why? Why limit yourself like this? Scrap what you want to when you want to. By the time you get to your 'now' photos you will have forgotten the story.

Dont limit yourself.

Ali E's tip of the day

18. Take some time to go back over all the layouts you have created and give yourself a hug for all the stories you have told. Taking a look at the body of your work will give you a whole new perspective on what you have done and where you want to go next.

This is so true. How often have you flicked back through your albums? I know i don't enough but my kids love getting them out and looking through them - remembering the stories and reading about what we were doing a few years back.

I saw a page that had slipped out of my album a couple of days ago which i had done in 2006. It was all about where i hoped i would be in 10 years time. Even though only 3 years had past, i had forgotten the detail of what i had written however i was relieved to read my goals were still the same. It was a strange feeling reading it, as if my 2006 self was sitting there talking to me now (if you get my drift). That is the one reason that i do believe journalling is sooooo important. Yes it is nice to do a few 'adore' 'beautiful' 'sisters' type pages but every now and then get down to the nitty gritty.

and yeah - look back at what you have done and be proud of all those memories that you have preserved!

Book of She ... Jenny

"The challenge is my most favourite photo of my Mama taken at Trafalgar square.
Jenny"

Oh Jenny what an amazing photo ... and the quote is so beautiful. Love your layout ... the birds look fabo and the cluster of embellishments at the bottom left look great. Thank you so much!!

Jenny's travels ...

Jenny said ...

" The photo was from our trip through the Simpson desert, it seems like eons ago."

Great photo Jenny!! Thank you for sending it through!!