Thursday 2 December 2010

She Grew Up {Colour Combos Galore 168/Sketch Inspirations Sketch 152} & some exciting news!

Good morning girls!  I hope you are all well!!  December, we're into it - yikes!!!  Scary...Anyway I am doing well on the Christmas front.  I am organised this year, have all the gifts, a lot of them wrapped & hubs away in the UK on business doing the rounds with googled images on his Blackberry, picking up the last of them! Shame, men & shopping..it is SUCH a struggle for them, yet for us it is TOO EASY lol...Okay, let's get to work -
 
Supplies:-  Bazzill cardstock - brown & white.  Printed paper - American Crafts Letterbox 'Cheers" {yellow strip is reverse side}, Thickers & pearly brads, EK Success shell-scallop punch.  Prima pearly bling, embroidery thread & flowers from stash, Bloomers - Webster's Pages,  Sentiment sticker tags - K & Co. Stick pins - Maya Road.  Butterfly - Jenni Bowlin.  Yellow ink - cheap & nasty!

Colour Combos Galore is a great Ning!  Community.  It is very well administered, the participation is awesome as are the prizes.  It is due in every Wednesday night (for me in South Africa) & I always end up staying up late to get it done as I have until 8a.m the next morning as we are 8 hours ahead of the States by Eastern Standard time.

I'm really into this retro look right now so was excited to play with this combo!  I've definitely found my niche with these colour challenges as I have no trouble with them, in fact, I am always excited to get crack-a-lacking on them!

Sketch Inspirations is another lovely Ning!  Community that has weekly sketches due in by 12 midnight EST every Saturday (and more awesome prizes) so I always try to combine a colour & sketch challenge if it's permissible as it makes sense right?!  Still time for you to try out this awesome challenge!

For some reason this bloomers rose ribbon is soooooo appealing to me right now!  I have some from American Crafts & some from Webster's Pages & the AC one is more workable for me (better for layouts whereas the WP one would be better for OTP stuff as it's a lot bulkier) so bear that in mind if you are purchasing online as they look almost identical.

I was just in the mood for inking so made it really heavy.  I used one of those cheap rubbish inkpads (the 1" square ones) that always come off their backing so you have to use a large pair of tweezers & squash them between the pincers.  I wanted this effect though so no worries...
I went a bit magoo with the Prima pearly bling but I could afford to as I got it for free!  I won it direct from Prima last year for winning a layout competition over at Iris Babao Uy's Hurricane class.  Woop Woop!!!

I'm tired of waiting to buy butcher's twine (not available locally & not easy to find online either...) so I decided to use embroidery thread instead.  I do have some twine on it's way to me though, won in a RAK on Kirsty's blog , from her charming little Pixie Shop over @ her challenge blog .  I shamelessly emulated Piradee here as she is one of my hugest inspiration sources - phantasmagorical scrapbooker that she is! AND drew inspiration for my title & theme from one of Stephanie Howell's December 2010 layouts.
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At last the exciting news!  Not only was my layout featured @ Scrapbooking Challenges but I made it through to round 2 of their next top scrapper competition - so exciting!!!  So I will be busy with that within the next coupla days as layouts need to be in on Sunday & I am still busy working on my TCR layout.

And here is an image of my latest purchase, {& how gorgeous is Debbi's blog?!  and just BTW she is one of the genius's behind the scenes at CCG} naughty I know...but the deal was just too good to pass up & I haven't spoilt myself for quite some time & have been working like a maniac on all fronts with hubs away & me manning the fort & all (can you tell I'm trying to justify my purchase?!)

Yup, that is indeed Cosmo Cricket's Circa 1934 line - just about all of it I reckon ;-D Generally I'm not a major CC groupie but this my dears is TOTALLY CRAZY LOVE!!!  Let's hope it arrives by Christmas!

***Phew!  In all that I forgot to mention how beautiful my little girl is!!!  All 17 and a half years of her!!!  She is coming home today - Yay! - she has been partying it up in Ballito for a week - at Matric Rage {where all the youngsters go when they have written their final exams} but she has been so good & sweet, texting me like 4 times a day to tell me that she loves & misses me!  How we're going to live without her next year when she goes to uni is beyond me ;-(***


Now I'm sure you'll agree this is quite some post so you won't mind not hearing from me for a while while I bury myself under some scrapbooking papers for the next few days... 

Have a Wonderful Weekend Bloggies & see you next week with plenty more where this came from {*wink}!







9 comments:

Lynette Jacobs said...

I love to see your colour challenges ...you do them so well. Your daughter is a beauty...dad will have to get the shotgun ready to keep the guys at bay.

Alia said...

Great work! Impressed with how you brought those subdued colors to life!

Marilyn said...

Hi Helen!! This is Beautiful!! love how you worked these colors. I love the photo, you girl is pretty! Congratulations on the featured LO! Did you see the second round challenge...oh my, isn't easy.
Thanks for visited me and for your sweet comments.
Have a nice week with your family(daughter)
HUGS!!!

Stefanie said...

Stunning.
I would not have attempted those colours - the yellow being a little loud for me, but you did it magnificently.
Wishing you all the best for your next round.

Kirsty Vittetoe said...

Beautiful layout, I love every bit of it, you are no doubt the color queen! Good at any color! Sweet and pretty you have there too!
Happy crafting away..... see you soon... with lots of beautiful work!

topkatnz said...

I just love the CC Circa range too - and have some waiting for me at our local(ish) store! Haha - Matric week, Schoolies week...every country seems to have one...I have major issues with those sorts of 'celebrations'!!...I don't know how it would work out if Ashlee went away to study either - luckily(unluckily??)it looks like Canterbury Uni for her - good luck to Chelsea for next year.

Gloria said...

Gosh Helen, this is truely gorgoeous. you rocked the color challenge and the sketch and your daughter is SO beautiful, I´m sure she´ll love this page. TFS and congrats on your layout being feautured, you deserve it all my friend..your work is beyond amazing. Thanks for another piece of inspiration. have a great weekend...

tania said...

Congratulations Helen!! But then again, i knew that you would bring it far in these challenges:)
love your purchase:)
that is for sure going to be hard on you, with your girl going to university.
you are lucky to have the other babies, i will have a complete empty nest!!
enjoy your weekend of scrapping,can't wait to see!

Diana said...

Gorgeous LO Helen. Just amazing. Beautiful. I can't get over it. Not just the photo but the colours and all the embellishments.
WOW.
and congrats!