ARTastic November Challenge

I needed to get some more scrapping done, I really wanted to finish the layouts for my daughter before baby Squirtle arrived but after this one I still have 8 to go so I have packed 1 bag of supplies to take with me in case I get a chance to scrap.

I gave myself a few 20 minutes on Sunday and 30 on Monday to finish this layout for ARTastic November Challenge.  Using the second baby bump photo.

I started by pulling out embellishments that they artwork had me drawn to, including vintage white and blue lace from my Mum's sewing stash, a piece of vintage doily that reminds me of leaves, these cute Apricot flowers and sky blue crocheted heart from D-lish Scraps, this cute heart from Charms Creations, some vintage metal buttons, Kaisercraft white mini roses, blue mini roses from the cheap shop and this cute blue paper flower that I got at the Destash Market (it is the only one like it in the entire pack of flowers and it is perfect for this layout).

I used a TCW stencil designed by Gabrielle Pollacco and Mister Huey's Color Mist in Warm Calico as the artwork has a tree trunk in the top left corner so I decided to add something brown as I don't have any tree trunk stencils or stamps I used a leafy vine.
I wanted to Gesso the page after doing this so I could experiment with that effect, I applied the Gesso in a thin layer over the section of the stenciling I wanted to show and thicker elsewhere in random strokes.

I then used Distress Stain in Tumbled Glass and Mister Huey's Color Mist in Powder Blue with water to get the rest of the colour I needed.

The Charms Creations heart and D-lish Scraps heart work wo well together.
I love the vintage lace from Mum's stash.   I am really loving including Mum's sewing supplies in my scrapbooking.

This piece of doily is just so lovely.
The flower has a lovely blending of blues in the centre.
I love this cute vintage button.  I have only 1 left now.

I like how the leaves on teh vine turned out.

Papers used include scraps from My Mind's Eye Collectable "Unforgettable" 6x6 paper pad that Heike gave me for my Birthday.  Thank you Heike I am getting so much use out of this wonderful paper pad.

I have also used a scrap from a background I did for a layout in April that I was unable to share the finished layout online, I did share a close up of the background  on my Facebook and Instagram.

I am really happy with the results of this layout and can't wait to give this album to my daughter.

Are you participating in any challenges this month?

Scrapbooking Top 50 Australia August Challenge

Scrapbooking Top 50 Australia's August Challenge well I love cake, I love butterflies and with 3 kids that play instruments any challenge that gets me scrapping those music photos is a challenge for me and I had to have join in for the first time this month.








I decided to use the photo, sheet music and cut up promotional poster from my daughter's Mozart concert that I wound up not using in last month's Kraft+ Challenge.

For the lovely rainbow of butterflies I decided to colour a Chipboard Butterfly from my prize pack I recieved from 2Crafty Chipboard for my June Scrap the Boys layout, after finishing my layout I realised the butterfly I selected was a dragonfly, had a giggle at my sleep deprived self.
I achieve this rainbow by base coating with Gesso and then I started from the middle with yellow and added each colour to create my rainbow of lilac, pale blue, light green, yellow, light orange and light red.


As the poster bits already had pink ink I decided to ink the sheet music with yellow and then blue to tie it in with the rainbow, I also added blue ink to the pink cardstock.




I selected my other embellishments to add to the rainbow on my page.  A purple doily I got at the Destash Market, rose ribbon from my stash and these cute crochet flowers I got from D-lish Scraps as I felt they tied in nicely with the rainbow.  I also added some more of these cute music and cello charms I used last month to my layout.

At first I was going to go with a background paper that had several colours of the rainbow in it but I decided on a softer background.  The paper is from 7Gypsies and is rather old, I like the pattern on it, it just helps with the feel I wanted from the layout.

So what do you think of my quick layout for Scrapbooking Top 50 Australia's August Challenge?

Jot Magazine July Mood Board and Aussie Crafters Pet Layout

I loved the July Mood Board from Jot Magazine when I saw it, it certainly felt warm, I have a small collection of yellow supplies and this was the prompt I needed to use them.

When I saw the prompt for Aussie Crafters July Challenge was Pets I knew I wanted to scrap Lola, I knew it would be sad to scrap this photo as it was taken the morning she passed away on July 4th 2016 but I wanted to create a layout of this beautiful dog that loved us for the last 2 years and 2 months of her life.
The love of a older dog is special.

I hadn't made much progress other than thinking about colours, papers and embelishments I may wish to use, however I had all my yellow supplies out for the Jot Magazine July Mood Board and her photo was on my desk near it I hadn't selected a photo for the Jot Magazine Mood Board yet and I was drawn to the need for the happiness and warmth of the yellow in the Mood Board to be around Lola.

For the Mood Board I had gotten out a collection of yellow embellishments, wood buttons to represent the woodgrain and cut part of a cute doily as I loved the yellow in it and the clothesline of white baby clothes in the Mood Board felt like a doily would fit.
I also added a sheet of lovely yellow patterened paper from the same My Mind's Eye 6x6 Designer Pad Unforgettable Heike gave to me for my Birthday.

As our Pet album is a 8x8 album unless it is a layout going into one of the kids 12x12 I did the ruler trick to see how it would look as a 8x8 layout and then tried 12x12.


















I loved the extra space the 12x12 allowed but felt it was best to do this layout for the family pet album so went with 8x8.

The paper flowers were 4 petal flowers, I trimmed out the fourth petal to use at a later date on another project since it would be hidden from view.

I am going to include journaling on a tag that will be tucked in behind the photo as I adhered it in a way that would allow this in case I decided I wanted to do this later.  I couldn't make my mind up where to put the journaling so left myself some options.


Linked up over at http://www.simplysaidseven.com/nest-builders-link-up-party-11/

Kraft+ July Challenge

When I saw the July Challenge from Kraft+ I knew this was a challenge for me.  With 3 of my 4 children playing instruments Sheet Music was an ideal challenge.

I decided I wanted to scrap my daughter touring with Elvis to the Max in 2014, however I could not get permission from all who were in the photo of her.  I really wanted to scrap part of her journey as a cellist so now the tough decisions was which photo to use out of 7 years of her 13 year journey.

I next settled on her performance in a local Sinfonia that was  quickly put together and had 6 weeks rehearsal to do a Mozart concert with world renouned Pianist Roman Rudnytsky.
I printed off the first sheet of one of the pieces played at the concert to be used in the layout and a copy of the A4 promo flyer distributed at the time and cut it up for the title and journaling.

I cut some pieces from a long table runner doily I have and created a bouquet of pink paper roses inspired by the bouquet on the board.

Then I heard back from my daughter as to which was the photo she would like to see scrapped with Kraft paper and pale pink, so I changed things and created my final layout.

So now that I am working with the lovely black and white photo taken by the Photography class at her Tafe when she was doing her Diploma last year I grabbed a sheet from Titanium that she performed with one of the Quartets she was in for a Year 12 assignment, tore it, layed it down on the Kraft and spritzed it with very pale pink paint spray which when dry is not very visible on the Kraft.

Adding this lovely pink paper from My Mind's Eye 6x6 Designer Pad Unforgettable given to me for my birthday by Heike, enhanced the pink paint spray on the sheet music.

I only used a single sheet of 6x6 paper, I selectively cut the paper to get the most out of it, as I love it and only have 1 more 6x6 sheet.

First I used some double sided tape to get the half flowers in place on the back of the pink cardstock, once this cardstock was down and then added some Glossy Accents under the half flowers to ensure they didn't move.

I also got some charms out from my charm stash to add to the title, bouquet and lace.

This charm with a bow of embroidery floss helped this space on the side of the photo.

I found this die cut in a pack I bought at the Destash Market last week which I am fairly sure is a Dear Lizzy die cut and it was the perfect title for what this photo represents.

I love the layers that are part of my bouquet, using the larger flower from the doily table runner under the bouquet added some dimension to it, the music note charm tucked in finished off this cluster nicely.  Underneath this and on top of the papers are 2 vintage pieces of lace from my Mother's sewing stash.

The top edge of the 6x6 pages from paper pads are great to include in your layout for that extra bit of colour and layer.

I was thinking about adding gesso to the background or more paint and inking the papers but I decided to go with a cleaner look.  I didn't want  to detract from the Kraft paper, sheet music or the photo.

I have since added journaling.