Creativity Quote #6

To be creative means to be in love with life. You can be creative only if you love life enough that you want to enhance it’s beauty, you want to bring a little more music to it, a little more poetry to it, a little more dance to it.

-Osho-

Mel - befunky layout!

A very warm welcome to Mel Forbes - our guest retreat teacher - who had a fiddle with the befunky site and loved it so much she scrapped the photos!

And what an amazing layout! Love the yellow and bright orange with the darker rusty red/orange background. STUNNING Mel.

Amanda's #1 challenge - Meredith

This was way harder than I thought it would be but I did manage to get it finished!!

Sue's sketch & Colour combo - Meredith

I decided to double up for this one and turned Sue's sketch around and adjusted my journaling to suit. I also took a tip from Amanda and matted my layout - I always like the look it gives her layouts so thought I'd give it a try!

Oh and that random button is covering a stamping mistake - a sideways 'a'!!

Creativity Quote #5

"When inspiration does not come to meet me, I go halfway to meet it."

-Sigmund Freud-

Jenny - befunky and two colour challenge...

 

Hey ho, here are my tries for the 2 colour challenge. The wedding cover I did ages ago for Luke's album, but never finished it (which I am inspired to do now). The 'befunky' one was using Wendy's bride photo.



Jenny F

Great job Jenny! These wedding photos are lovely and pics of brides and grooms are always beautiful to scrap.

Love what you have come up with here!

Creativity Quote #4

“You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.”

-Maya Angelou-

Amanda - Challenge #1

ok i admit this was MUCH harder than i thought it would be ... but i guess that is why we call it a 'challenge'.

The main colour i picked was blue - so i have various shades of blue from navy right through to light.

My one element is the yellow button with also doubles as the O in 'toy'.

I couldn't help myself and also put the word yellow in a yellow colour as well so a bit of a cheat = whoopsie.

Chaz - Sue's sketch

Love the bright red Chaz - so eyecatching! Great photo of the three kids too!

Fab interpretation of Sue's sketch!

Helping out a fellow scrapper...

A few days ago i was noseying around the www (as you do!) and came across Bev M's blog. Bev is a e2c diehard supporter who has attended and been involved both years of our retreat.

She wrote a sad post here, which made me stop and think about the amount in my stash, how i would feel if i suddenly lost it all (as well as my pages already done!) and finally and most importantly how i could help.

Yesterday i went through my stash and have gotten quite a big box ready to give to Bev who can then pass it on to her sister. It felt good to

a) cull my stash down a bit - i mean how much really does one person need??!

and b) help someone out.

I have asked Bev if it is ok to pop the details on here incase any one else would like to be involved. She said that the other option for donation is to create some blank pages - where everything is done apart from title, journalling and photo placement.

If anyone would like to help, please email me ga.hall@bigpond.com and i can pass on Bev's details and sort out a drop off spot so as these goodies can get to Bev's sister ASAP.

retreat tips = prepare

The first tip, just like any good girl scout, is to be prepared.

If you are a 'fly by the seat of your pants' type of scrapper then this is going to sound like a load of BS. If you are like me, and can easily get lost or overwhelmed at retreats read on:

Get photos sorted now. If you have no photos that inspire you, or nothing printed off = get it organized.

• There are still plenty of days to take the kids/ husband / self (all of the above would be ideal!!) and grab some photos. Fresh, new photos always inspires me to scrap. If you are feeling a bit blah about the shots you have - do something about it and get some more!!

• Remember to pack your memory card and take to the stores to print off your phtos or print them at home (whatever you usually do). This is definately NOT a last minute job to do the week before the retreat as it will add stress and no doubt cause mistakes in sizes for photo requirements for classes. 

• We have stressed to take note of photo sizes and their orientation (portrait or landscape). Do this now while there is still plenty of time!

When you have your photos, make a coffee, grab a pen and paper and go somewhere quiet. Look at each photo.

• What does that photo mean to you? What do you want to say about that photo / moment in time? Jot these down in a notebook or pad to take with you on the retreat. This will instantly help when it comes to journalling.

• One thing i have found with retreats is to pre print off my journalling strips. I use a lot of jounalling strips in my scrapping (more power to you if you handwrite - god i wish i loved the look of mine...alas i do not) and a major holdup with scrapping - particularly on retreats or crops where there is no printing facilities - is not being able to finish pages due to the journalling. At home, once i have looked at the photo and thought about what i would like that layout and photo to say i print off my strips. I use a variety of fonts, colours, sizes so it mixes things up a little. You wouldn't believe how much of a help (and often a great starting point) just having the journalling done and gist of the page ready to go in my head. I don't do this for every photo i take to a retreat but it sure does help pull the pages together faster.

Once you have your photos sorted, the story set out and maybe even your journalling strips, you are almost all set and you can sit back and relax. Pat yourself on the back for being a fantastic-ly organized person.

I know it sounds like a lot of preparing and buggering around (there are probably a lot of eyerolls going on reading this i can imagine) , but these jobs honestly would maybe take half an hour. Believe me......... it will be such a massive help.

Just in closing, the other thing that always amazes me is people say "oh i suck at titles. I can never think of what to title to put on my page".

The only time i have ever had trouble with a title is when my pages have had no direction. If i know exactly what i want to say in the journalling and what story i want my photo to tell - the title seems to come easily. So again, preparing your story and journalling before hand will help in this aspect too.

Good luck preparing, the next tip will involve your imagination.

just clarifying :

i have had a couple of comments about my challenge for this month.

Just to clarify the challenge of using one colour and then using only ONE element of a different, contrasting colour does not necessarily mean that you must use white as the base colour (as per white with one type of challenge)

You might wish to use different shades of green with ONE bright yellow element for example. This is what i am after - not white :)

Creativity Quote #3

“Every day is an opportunity to be creative – the canvas is your mind, the brushes and colours are your thoughts and feelings, the panorama is your story, the complete picture is a work of art called, ‘my life’. Be careful what you put on the canvas of your mind today – it matters.”

- Innerspace-

Chaz - be funky!

Oooooooh cool effect Chaz. Love seeing how the different photos and effects take on different 'moods'.

Great job!

Kylie - be funky!

These are fantastic Kylie. I particularly like the sunrays one of Bree. It seems so right for her gorgeous 'radiant' personality.

Thanks for participating!

March - sketch challenge

A nice easy sketch for this month, let me see what you can come up with.

My example....and i mean it was quick and easy....i had it all done in 45minutes, no kidding, that is quick for me....i normally take days to get a page out!! LOL!!

Have fun with it all....can't wait to see your pages!

Creativity Quote #2

“Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes, and having fun.”

- Mary Lou Cook-

Being Funky.

My inbox has overflow-eth with photo fiddles from befunky!

First up is Tiff -

a pair of massive hippo legs! Love the blue tones!

then came Sandra.

she made a little template up to show all her fiddling - great idea! (original photo is top left)

along came Maryanne:

i am in love with this image - looks like it is straight from a Quicksilver advert in a magazine. Fantastic effect and photo to use it on!


keep them coming girls. Amazing work and it is so much fun seeing your photos used with new, different effects.

Creativity Quote #1

“Creativity is contagious. Pass it on.”

- Albert Einstein-

and suddenly it was March....

woohoo.

Here we are at THE best month of the year. Why is that i hear you ask!

Why? Because March means RETREAT in any escape2create-ers language!

This month will hopefully inspire your creativity. I am on a month long quest (ok well 26 or so days) to inspire YOU to be more creative and to get the absolute most out of our retreat.

I have a couple of great ideas lined up and all will be revealed over the course of the next few weeks but here are the March challenges.

Amanda's Challenge #1.

I would like you do do a layout using all one colour - or variants of one colour - and then have ONE SINGLE ELEMENT in a contrasting colour. It may be a letter, a flower, a button. Whatever. Just ONE element in a contrasting WOW colour to the rest of the page.

This celebrates the unique-ness of YOU. That one single colour represents you and how you are bringing a special YOU-NESS to our retreat and we are so glad you are coming!

Amanda's Challenge #2.

Unleash your creativity! Yep right now. Unclip it - let it go.

In challenge number two i need you to go to this site

befunky

and choose a photo effect that you like. NO cheating and doing it in photoshop! (be patient as it takes a little while to upload your photo)

you might like to share your finished photo with us, you might like to scrap the finished photo (the print and save option is also free) or you might just like a private fiddle (ooooh!)

This challenge i particularly would like you to think differently about your photos. Use them differently. Pick a different effect than you would normally go for. And finally and most importantly think of how to use your photos differently!

Sue's Sketch

Stay tuned! Sketch coming soon!

Meredith's Challenge.

Don't switch the dial - coming soon to a screen near you.

Colour Challenge

orange and white. Yep. Fresh. Funky. Go.

I don't know if you noticed this in the latest CK but it is here to download free. I love it .... and guess what? It is orange AND white :)

**in the next few days i will post a special retreat challenge. This is for everyone - most particularly the retreat attendees to think about and do in the coming weeks.

Think team building.

Think cool-ness.

Think creativity.

Think yeah, woohoo, e2c here i come !