On a different note

I have been busy with sketch challenges I thought it would be good to throw in something different.  I needed a birthday card for a boy and was inspired by one of my boys shirts to put something together.  I thought I would give you a little more of an idea into how I go about making my cards.

Once I have the colour sorted I start with the stamp images that I want to use.  From there I dip into my colour drawers to find embellishments that I could use.  So the creating begins.  For this one I started with building up the layers with the grunge stamps and then added the words with ink and then embossing. A little stitching and finishing touches - Done.

Colours: basic grey, going grey, green galore
Stamps:  all about me (kaiser), grunge me (PTI)
Finishing touches: stitching, black embossing powder, stone bakers twine (the twinery), washi tape, brad and anchor, button

Page Maps Anniversary Challenge - Grand prize

Page Maps 7th Anniversary Celebration

What is a celebration without a grand prize? $200 from A Cherry on the Top. This challenge was to use the sketch provided to create a layout.

So here is my take on the challenge

I decided to flip the sketch upside down this time. I have been keeping fairly close to the sketches that I have done till this one. I have gathered several different Christmas themed products since Christmas so it was fun to see how I could use them.  The 7-gypsies sticker sheet worked well for the different journalling pieces.

Journalling reads ' There's nothing like trimming the tree to make it feel like Christmas.  So cool we get to go down the bottom and choose one we have grown ourselves.  Note to self.  They are always bigger when you get them inside. We had no end of trouble this year with trying to keep it upright!'

I love pages that come together with ease.  This one did apart from getting to the last job which was the journalling.  Done now.  Better add it to the link before the competition finishes!

Competition goodies from Scrapbook.com

Do you remember my layouts from my fun day with Scrapbook.com?  Well my prize that I won arrived in the mail this week.  So impressed, there were some fabulous goodies inside. 

 Lots to play with.

Thank you Scrapbook.com

Page Maps Anniversary Challenge - Colour suite

Page Maps 7th Anniversary Celebration

The challenge for this one was to use the colour palette and the sketch provided to create a layout.

Pink is always a little tricky when you have mostly boy pics.  But I found the perfect picture of my sister and I that had just the colours in the palette.  I stuck mostly with the greys and pinks with a little of the others, and kept to the sketch. 

Page Maps Anniversary Challenge - Make your own stamps

Page Maps 7th Anniversary Celebration

The challenge was to create your own stamps and then use them in one of the sketches for a card or layout.  Stripes are a favourite of mine.  I love cutting them thin across all the lines for a different border. I never seem to have quite the colour combo for what I want to use so this is a great way to do it yourself.  There were lots of great ideas. Loved the use of alpha's to make stamps.

It turned out quite different to my original plan.  That's what happens when you let it evolve as it goes.

Colours:  night of navy, more mustard, very vanilla, old olive
Stamps:  background stripes (handmade), in the stars (SU)
Finishing touches:  vellum, victoria crochet trim, running stitch border punch (x-cut), buttons, lots of tags die (SU)

28 Days of Sketches - Sketch One and Three

28 Days of Sketches

So it begins.  This is the first sketch with 27 more to come.

Using a sketch really pushes you outside your comfort zone.  From experience that is something that you want to do.  It allows you to discover things you might never have had thought of and those things that you may not like.

Because there was more to this story I decided to use another of the sketches for the second page.  Loving that I had recorded the memory in my diary/log book so I could include the photo I didn't take so the whole story was there.  You can see another of my non-photo records at this post {second layout}  a challenge from a crop day that came from the blog Unphotographable dedicated to all the times when you don't have your camera or it just isn't possible or appropriate to take a photo but you want to remember the moment.

Page Maps Anniversary Celebration - Your favourite sketch challenge

Page Maps 7th Anniversary Celebration

All month long Page Maps are celebrating in style with challenges at their blog.  Here is my take on the challenge to kick things off.  The prize for this one comes from Little Yellow Bicycle  Great chance to check out new products and how they are used.

I am really enjoying starting with sketches and trying new ways of putting my pages together using what I have.  For now I am keeping pretty much to the original plan.  I am sure as I get more confident I will try different approaches

A Card

With all my layouts of late I decided to pop in a card for a change of pace.  I have started a collection of ideas for cards for guys on Pinterest.  The colours from this one caught my eye.  I realised I hadn't used my stars border from Papertrey so started with that.  Must do more.  Everyone sees male cards as a bit of a challenge.  Definitely a need out there for more ideas.

Colours: crumb cake, riding hood red, baja breeze, not quite navy
Stamps:background basics - inspiration (PTI), sentiments circles (autumn leaves), punctuation (kelly pannachi), notebook paper (verve)
Finishing touches: super stars border die (PTI),  rounded rectangel die (verve), corner rounder (fiskars), linen thread, papers (October Afternoon)

Challenge Me Happy #45

I had teamed up these photos and embellishments and they fitted well for Challenge # 45 at Challenge Me Happy. You have to scraplift from the layout from Marie. I tried out some different things including scrunching vellum for a layer.  Love how the arrow border worked with the stitching

International Scrapbooking Day @ Scrapbook.com

But wait there is more........

@ Scrapbook.com

Over 100 PRIZES, valued at $178 EACH, and with 28 HAND-PICKED items included! WOWZERS!

I had signed up for the Big Picture Classes Creative Crop and discovered here that there were all sorts of other exciting things happening around the web.  So I thought I would check it out while I had the day to myself.  Be sure to scroll down to find out more!

Door Prize Challenge:  Just for showing up!

Have a Hot Mess:  Show your mess and at the end clean up and take another shot to share.

With so many challenges the desk looked even worse as the day went on.

With everything having a place to live and the way that I organize it didn't take too much to whip it back into shape.  I will have to add some of the new ways I have added to my space to help me organize. I have also joined in the Get Organized Class at Scrapbook.com.  Great info and tips and at the moment it's free!

Get it together:  Organise your photos and share how you do it

With all the photos I have recently had printed this was a necessity if I wanted to get anything done

This is the file box that I keep all my photos in

After doing Stacy Julian's Start Here With Stacy Class I am loving being freed up from scrapping chronologically and getting my stories told.

 I keep a diary of the different things that I want to remember as well as 

tucking in all the bits and pieces from the events.

 Ways to Washi:  There was a great video to check out with different ways to washi 

{a new supply that I love learning new ways to use.

This was my favourite layout for these challenges

Insta-Scrap It: Get your phone photos scrapped.

You Spin me right round baby:  Use a pinwheel on your page

Snail Mail:  Create a set of 6 cards to have ready to give away

I have a plan for these ones as thankyou's to go along with a rocky road treat

Sketch It:  Use the sketch to inspire your layout

Don't be so negative:  Use a shaped punch or die  to create a "negative" overlay for a layout

I got the idea for this one from a page that I had in my idea folder.  

I used the negative circles to fill in with embellishments

Party on the Page:  Use a traditional party-type embellishment on a layout... like goodie bags, straws, banners, crepe streamers, etc

I used streamers from a pinata

 And here is the exciting thing................  I won! with this layout.  That's right I could hardly believe it when I saw my name listed on the challenge as one of the winners.  You can see the sneak preview of the prizes here.  Someone has gone through and listed in the comments what they think they are.  A big prize!  I was thrilled just to get my layouts done and have a day to myself to do it. What a bonus. 

A very happy scrapper
Thank you to Scrapbook.com for a great day of challenges and fun