October 2014

Where has this year gone????

I can't believe it is nearly November some one joked with me the other day there were only 10 Fridays left till Christmas..... NOT FUNNY!

Any way, I have managed to fit some scrapbooking in thank goodness, not as much as I would have liked but some is better than none!

My recent layouts for ARTastic Challenge Blog have been fun and I enjoyed scrapping them. 

September was a layout that included twine or string. My layout had minimal used but I really liked the effect it had and that I reflected the texture with stamps.

It was the beginning of our trip in Aussie and we were getting somewhat excited!

For the October challenge we were inspired by R Godfreys River painting of a wonderful Jacaranda Tree. 

When I saw the criteria of using photos over thirty years old I knew I had to use my baby photos. I turned forty this year and at my party I had a photo board up of my life so far. I grabbed the ones from my first year and added one of my favourite latest ones. My favourite colour to scrap with is teal and I love flowers so these had to be included. My intention is to scrap all my other ones too and document some memories on the way, this page will be the cover.

Thanks for coming in to have a look and a big thank you to Nic Howard for the inspiration and wonderful Prima products I used to create what would have to be one of my favourite layouts I have created!

Happy scrapping everyone!!

August 2014

Man has it been a varied winter we have had this year. It has seemed dry and mild but then we have had some very intense colds and rains! Great weather for scrapbooking!!!

ARTastic has kept me busy with a couple projects over the last couple of months, one I enjoyed and one not so much. But I guess that is what the business is about, sometimes it is easy to be inspired and at times it is hard to dig deep and create something that you can look at and say "Yep I made that and I love it" So here are my latest layouts, one from the July challenge (too late to enter now) and the current challenge which runs till the end of the month.

This layout was completed for a joint challenge with CSI. I totally miss-read the criteria and felt a bit lost with what was needed for the challenge. I think this is why I didn't like the end result. But I think I can re-visit this layout and add something to it that will make me feel like it is finished. Later.....

The August challenge is inspired by a piece of art by Kristen Doran called 'Gypsy Caravan.

The criteria was to use fabric, interesting!

So I found some fabric and looked at it, and looked at it, and looked at it....

I love flowers so my mind ended up wondering about making my own with the fabric. Onto Pinterest and I found some gorgeous ones that I had pinned a while back that I have been wanting to try for a while. Check these out at Fabric flowers on Pinterest

I love this page, the colours, the flowers and the banner. I thought about adding more, some gesso, more stamping, more bling, but decided against it as I didn't want to take away from what was already on the page.

Thanks for calling in to see my layouts, please head to ARTastic Challenge Blog for more details on the challenge and how to enter.

June 2014

Can you believe, another month gone! Man it has been a mild June too, it will be interesting to see what July will bring!

This month at ARTastic we had the challenge laid down with a beautiful piece of art by Max Mannix called The Jam Session. The criteria was to use distressing.

 

Now I think everyone has many different takes on what distressing is and the submissions show this. I think they are all relevant and it is great to see all the different interpretations. 

I based mine on using distress ink, I have edged all my layers, used templates to create pattern and coloured some of the elements on the page.

I was also inspired by the wood on the pub and used a photo of me and my girls in front of a distressed wall.

Thanks for calling in to look. I am looking forward to next months challenge, something a little bit different.

 

May 2014

Can you believe it is nearly the end of May already!? I can't believe how fast this year is going... April was a busy month and the highlight for me would have to be Autumn Escape.

I have attended this amazing event for five (or is it six?) years and I have to say this last one was one of my favourites! The tutors were Nic Howard, of course and she did her last ever class. Absolutely stunning! The lovely Paula Cheney from Tim Holts showing us some amazing techniques using the inks and paints. Then the artistic Natalie May, where I got to learn some new fun ways to include mixed media into my layouts.

I haven't got photos of my class layouts as I haven't finished titles and journalling, but here are a couple that I did that were inspired by the classes.

This layout was inspired by Natalie and I entered into the sketch comp they had running. I won :) yippee and a cool packet sponsored by Crazy Monday Kits.

 A close up of the Gesso and Inking I did. It was so liberating just throwing on the page!

Paula inspired me to have a go at inking me page using the Tim Holtz Layering Stencils. In this case the 'Rays'

And finally here is much submission for the May Challenge over at ARTastic Challenge Blog

This months challenge is based on the painting 'Amarys' by Robert Hagan, the criteria being 'Mother & Child'

I took a slightly different spin and scrapped a photo of me and my Mum.

I have used a monotone colour scheme and used some flowers, twine, Tim Holts words, a rub on that I don't know who made, and I splattered some white distress paint. Very simple but effective, well I think so!

Thanks for coming for a look!

March 2014

Hi all, sorry there was no post in February. Bit of a busy time in our household!

March has been a month of highs and lows for me. My good friend lost her battle with cancer and I attended her funeral on the same day as my 15th Wedding anniversary. Needless to say we celebrated on another day.

So, what have I been doing as far as scrapbooking? Just the minimum, I am sorry to say. Although I am hoping this will change very shortly!! I am looking forward to Autumn Escape in April, hopefully loads of inspiration to get my creative juices flowing.

This month at ARTastic the challenge is based on a piece of art by

Lyn Butchart called Bluebirds

 

 

The  criteria is to use texture. This challenge runs till the end of March and is a heap of fun. You can add texture with anything!!!

For my entry I decided to try something new by creating texture on my background. When it comes to texture usually let my papers and flowers do the talking. I used tissue paper, ribbon, lace, twine, metal embellies, hessian and felt to create the base. I then covered this in Gesso to meld it together then got creating with glimmermists, stamps and distress paints. I used the tarnished brass distress paint to colour the flowers and other bits in the cluster, linking it all together. This goes out to my good friend Kirsty xxooxx

She could always make me laugh!

January 2014

Welcome to 2014!

I hope you all had a wonderful and safe holiday. I know I did!

The challenges are back into action at ARTastic and January is being inspired by a beautiful piece of wall art by Vexta.

 

The criteria for the challenge is to include Diamonds or Triangles.

I must admit that these are shapes that I don't automatically use in my layouts but when I went back through some of my inspiration collection I found that triangle banners was where my inspiration would come from.

This layout is from a photo shoot we did with my girls. I wanted papers that would complement their dresses without blending in too much. I also liked the clean lines in the photos so tried to not be too messy to play into this.

The papers I used are from a collection that was left over from a class I did at Autumn Escape a few years ago. I think they are Prima but not too sure :)

Thanks for coming and having a look at my blog, please feel free to leave a comment!

Happy scrapping :)

November..... What's been happening?

Not a lot really!

I think because life was so busy for the last couple of months and next month is Christmas I decided to give myself a little break. Although there have been a trip to Rotorua, Whakatane and Tauranga in there.

This months challenge for ARTastic was one I was looking forward to. The art is called Listen by Kiwi artist Jenny Grant.

 

The criteria was free choice as long as your inspiration came from this art. For me this piece screamed out texture, layers and subtle colours.

So I decided to scrap a picture of my 'Beautiful Ghoul' Alana in her vampire dress up.

The paper is some left over paper I had from a class with Paula Cheney. I can't remember the brand but I love the deep subtle colours and decided to pick up the shades of yellow through the flowers, inking some ribbon and the lace. To add some texture I rolled the edges of the paper and used Gesso with the Prima Doily stencil. A couple of charms, metal flowers and a bit of bling and I am really happy with this layout!

Thanks for coming and looking.

Please leave me a comment to let me know what you think.