Saturday 31 March 2012

Sketchabilities Sketch 68 - Chivies Layout and C'est Magnifique Packaging Challenge





Yesterday saw a new reveal go up at Sketchabilities for 
Sketch 68, the last sketch of my 6 month term there, so
 it is goodbye and thank you to Karan for a great time there!

I got myself into a bit of a muddle this month &  used this
beautiful sketch to create my layout for Les Papiers de Pandore
  HERE - then got my posting dates wrong and it went live
 before the reveal so I created a new layout as seen below.  

You can see all the details for the other one posted
 a few posts down HERE and it's also up on the 
Sketchabilities blog aswell.  

challenge as I have used Webster's and Prima
packaging as well as Pion Designs paper from their kits.


I trimmed down the packaging card to get rid of all the
gluey bits then inked around with brown ink.


Roughed up the edges of my patterned paper
 before stitching it down all around.


Made my main cluster using Prima packaging - lots of it!
Mixed up with some Webster's Pages off cut pieces.


The back view of my cluster just to prove to you
that it is REALLY packaging - after all it's so pretty!


I ended up using a piece of Webster's Pages 
packaging and SIX Prima packaging cards! 


Then I added all my details and here we have the result!


I dry-brushed gesso on top of the black backing
 cardstock to draw out the embossed dot design.


I used smaller photos again, from my Instax camera.


I also used gesso under the title alphas to make them pop.


The tassle lace is Prima and the lace doilies are Websters.


I seem to be back in love with BLING again - just a touch!


Supplies List for "Chivies" Layout

Black embossed cardstock - Bazzill Swiss Dot
Printed Paper - Glom Migeg - Pion Design
Border sticker - Kasiercraft - Sweet Nothings
Packaging papers - Webster's Pages and Prima
Off cut papers - Webster's Pages
Ink - Color Box - Toffee & Dark Brown
Lace Doilies & bloom - Webster's Pages
Bling & tassle lace - Prima
Alphas - American Crafts Remarks - Becket - Dandelion
Tiny alphas - October Afternoon Mini Market
Staples and thread - stash




Friday 30 March 2012

C'est Magnifique March Sketch Challenge - My Boys - Kaisercraft/Pion Design/Prima/ Petaloo





I played along with the March Sketch challenge at my 
new kit club C'est Magnifique, using product from the 
March Kit, papers from Pion Design and the die-cut
paper from Kaisercraft, with Prima and Petaloo  blooms.


Here's a peek at what arrived on my doorstep...


Along with a list of contents {there is also an online
 store that stocks additional supplies that ship free 
with your order too}.


Kits are $38 plus postage and all details relating to subscribing
can be found HERE - so far I have created 3 pages using
 product from the March kit {although not exclusively} and
 imagine getting a couple more so 5 pages is not bad & I'll
have leftovers for sure!


Everything on my page comes from C'est Magnifique
except for the brown ink, misted gauze, journaling pen,
concertina flower embellishment & clear bling.


I am IN LOVE with the Prima resin embellishments
and purchased this little birdie from the store.


I misted some gauze and laid it under by floral sprays,
using quite a bit of clear glue to secure it.  I repainted
a peach-coloured concertina flower using paints that
matched - brown, white & blue.


I purchased the brown alphas from C'est Magnifique in 
addition to the green ones that are supplied with the kit.


Supplies List for "My Boys" Layout

Patterned Papers - Pion Design - Letters & Lily of the Valley
Die-cut Paper - Kaisercraft - Sweet Nothings
Ink - Color Box - Toffee
Vine - Prima
Glittery flowers - Petaloo 
Bling Lace - Prima
Bling - stash
Lace - Wrights
Border sticker - Kaisercraft Sweet Nothings
Alphas - Jilly Bean Soup - Woodgrain
Resin birdie - Prima
Journaling pen - Creative Memories
Paints - Gesso - Paper Plus,
Blue - Creative Talents, Chocolate - Making Memories
Mist - Green - Meadow - Tattered Angels
Staples & Gauze- Making Memories





Thanks for all the Birthday Wishes :), Blogger Problems and taking a Break...





I had a brilliant day yesterday and got about 80 wishes
on Facebook - WOW!  I can imagine now what it must 
feel like to be Justin Beiber and have your mobile alerting 
you of notifications every few minutes!!  I had to do 
quite a bit of running around for the kids (who are all
now on school holidays) but it was fun and the boys
each got a new pair of soccer boots for the season so
it was like a birthday for them too!  

I got all sorts of nice goodies but the best gift of all
was arranged by myself, with the use of hubby's
credit card though - mwah!!  I am going away for
a few days next week - I will give you all the details
once I am back but things will be slowing down
here for a bit next week, due to me being away.

I am taking a little break now that the kids are off
school.  It's been 13 long weeks so far this year
and I'm feeling tired and in need of some rejuvenation
and a change of scenery so this should do the trick
just perfectly!

On a completely different note - Blogger is on the blink
again and I am battling to comment on the blogs
today - I keep getting error messages popping up
AFTER I have written out the whole comment -
QUITE infuriating!  Anyway, just so you know!
It's not for want of trying and I shall try again this
evening, once I have cleared my inbox and posted
my C'est Magnifique March sketch before it's too late!

HAPPY WEEKEND EVERYONE!!





Wednesday 28 March 2012

Holiday Memories {Scrap Fit/The Paper Variety Challenge Combo} Studio Calico/Purple Pumpkin





Hi everyone :)
Firstly THANK YOU so much to those kind, sweet bloggy friends 
that always celebrate with me {and commiserate with me too 
when necessary!} -I always note who you are and though I may 
not always remember exactly what you say
 I do always remember how good it made me feel!  
So thanks!! 

 And my apologies for having to edit and republish my
 "Les Papiers de Pandore" post  from yesterday - there seems 
to be an issue with copying and pasting images from
 Over Blog {the French blog host} so I know now to rather 
insert my own images than take them from the Pandore 
blog, for future.

Today I'm sharing a layout I did for the current challenge
over at Scrap Fit, which requires bullet points for your
 journaling.  Here's a copied and pasted overview of 
what is required before the end of the month.

-----------------------------------------------------

ScrapFIT has offered up a jounaling challenge and
The Paper Variety has created a sketch challenge. 
Put them together and you will get an awesome layout
 and a chance to WIN a prize from both places!

Workout #64- Its Easy as 1, 2, 3... 


The 'Its Easy as 1, 2, 3..' Workout is here and all you 
have to do is list out numerically your journaling
 on your layout! This could be a list of your Top 10 
favorite moments from last year, a list of goals for
 the new year or the countless reason you love
 ScrapFIT (Just kidding!).  

Show us your numbered list! 


Be sure to incorporate this journaling workout with the
 Sketch below from The Paper Variety so you can
 enter your layout at both places! 


Fun right?!  Well I thought so anyway...



I attacked my stack of Studio Calico Classic and Memoir
 papers {I always get into a mad scrapping frenzy at this
 time of the year - when I have some CHA orders in and 
I am waiting for new stash to arrive 
(and wondering where it will fit LOL)


I added a luscious Purple Pumpkin Lace Flower (popped onto
 the top of a doily) and fussy cut some of the Studio Calico
 papers,then created some confetti with the dots from the "I's" 
from some alpha letter stickers {inspired idea if I do say so 
myself...} & some bling!


I used a pale cream and grey woodgrain paper for the 
background and masked it using an old Basic Grey 
lace paper, inking with 3 different shades of ink 
around the border then adding some faux stitching.


I inked up all the edges for depth, added a Prima 
ornate pebble centre and some Basic Grey rub-ons 
down the left side of the photo.


Here you can see my bullet point journaling, all about my
daughter's Holiday Memories (her boyfriend came on 
holiday with us and we had such a fun time together!)


I journaled onto a Studio Calico sticker, cutting off the
left-hand side of it and adding that as a strip beneath
the "Holiday Memories" title at the bottom.


I split up a Prima vine & used some of it on either
 side of the doily{and still have some left over}.


The text print on the ribbon cut piece comes from a 
Studio Calico Promotional card (I always keep them
as they are always so beautiful from a design
 perspective) and I end up incorporating them all
into my layouts at some stage.


Supplies List for "Holiday Memories" Layout

Patterned Papers - Studio Calico Classic Calico {Plano}
Studio Calico Memoir {Flower Bed}
Studio Calico Classic Calico {Woodgrain One}
Studio Calico Memoir {Heirloom}
Mask - Basic Grey Lace Paper
Inks - Color Box - Butternut, Teal and Lilac
Journaling Pen - Creative Memories
Rub-ons and alphas- Basic Grey
Doily and bling - stash
Flower - Purple Pumpkin
Floral Vine & ornate pebble centre - Prima
Sticker - Studio Calico
Numbers - Kaisercraft
Confetti - Basic Grey and Sassafras stickers





Tuesday 27 March 2012

The Good News! {at long last!!} a Paper Manufacturer Design Team for me!!!





I have had to keep this under my belt for the longest time
and it has been killing me LOL but finally I can direct you
to this post HERE where you can see my Design Team
introduction to the team at Les Papiers de Pandore in
France, owned and headed by the uber talented Julie Blanc.

I am mega-delighted to be working alongside Julie and my
dear Norwegian friend {now living in Sweden} Bente Fagerberg,
aswell as 7 other very talented and lovely ladies!  I believe
 the European papercrafting brands are strengthening
exponentially at the moment and I am over the moon
to have been selected by Julie to represent her brand,
that is a top brand in France & I hope you will all come 
to know it a lot better through me & be tempted to 
visit the boutique HERE and make your purchases :)


I sent my bio to Julie in English, she translated it into French
for the blog, but to view and read it if you are not French
speaking you will need to translate it back to English,
which makes for a rather interesting rendition - Google Translate
being a literal word-for-word translation as I'm sure you know.




I got a wonderfully warm welcome from all the readers of the
Les Papier de Pandore blog, and I urge you to click in and
add it to your readers now to keep up with the daily updates.




They are now running monthly sketch and colour challenges too!








Supplies List for "In Love" Layout

Printed Papers -  Fragrance of the Camellias "Bloom", "Harvest",
 "Browsers", "Inventory", "Labels"  & badge
Stamp - Les Papiers de Pandore - Butterfly
Inks - Candy Pink and Lime Zest - Color Box
Hand-dyed gauze using Meadow by Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist
& Piglet {Studio Calico} Mr. Huey's
Stick pins - Jenni Bowlin
Glitter varnish & doily & bling  - stash
Green alphas - Making Memories
Pink Alphas - October Afternoon
Punch - Fiskars


SO EXCITED!!!
That's me over and out for today - hubs is waiting for collection
at the airport - yippee!!  And he is bearing gifts too!  {well it
IS my birthday on Thursday!} More on that later LOL...





Monday 26 March 2012

Bird is the Word SPARKLE - Gotta Love that Attitude! Layout {Purple Pumpkin Sketch - Webster's Pages}






As usual yesterday saw the release of a new word at
 Bird is the Word Challenge blog - the word being SPARKLE
 {although of course you may use SPARKLING, SPARKLY
 and SPARKLER as well!}

I have been with Bird is the Word for an entire year as of
 the end of March so I have decided to step down from
 the team there in order to pursue a new opportunity that 
came along about a month ago which will require my
time and efforts.

 I will be making that announcement here on the blog
 tomorrow and I would like to publicly thank dear Wendy
 from Bird is the Word and all my lovely teamies there for
 such a fun year.  Working behind the scenes at Bird is the Word 
has been a great experience for me and I had a truly lovely time
with a super bunch of gals and learnt a lot.


I used the March sketch over at Purple Pumpkin HERE.
I rotated it one turn clockwise as you can see {I hope!}


I went super simple with this one because this Webster's Paper
 already had the gorgeous suitcase and hot-air balloon motifs
 already printed on it.


I used Webster's alphas - I LOVE these alphas because they 
come on 12 inch sheets and you get one set of the larger
 set and THREE  sets of the smaller alphas, all on one sheet, 
so real bang  for your buck and so easy to co-ordinate.


I swiped some gesso over the cream background to make a clean 
slate for my photos and the main focal point of my design.


*** I sprinkled some glitter into the wet gesso and the effect
is awesomely sparkly in real life but alas non-existent in the
photos here!***


I embellished with Purple Pumpkin tickets {inked with teal},
flower and  spotty button, aswell as Webster's sparklers
 and some confetti bling.


 I hand-journaled for a casual, spontaneous look, lastly adding
a swipe of red paint to the corners and some Citrus Lime 
bashed on straight from the dabber & some pale lime ink 
around the edges to add some depth to the borders.



The cool stapled hearts are also from Purple Pumpkin and 
I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of my next order from them
as I am almost all out!  

Supplies List for "Gotta Love that Attitude Layout"

Printed paper - "Seaside Retreat" - Far and Away -
Webster's Pages
Gesso - Paper Plus
Paint - Red Wagon - Making Memories
Citrus Dabber - Ranger
Ink - Lime & Teal - Color Box
Alphas - Webster's Pages "Storytellers"
Staples, bling, glitter & glitter varnish - Stash
Sparklers - Webster's Pages
Hearts, tickets, flower and spotty button - 
Purple Pumpkin
Tiny alphas - Making Memories
Felt Heart - Dear Lizzy for American Crafts
Journaling pen - Creative Memories





Sunday 25 March 2012

Everyday Sunday & some Sneaks...





I took the day off creating {and the computer}
today to hang with these guys...


We had a lovely, sweltering Durban Summer's day & we are 
ending it off now with a movie on DVD, "How Do You Know?  
with Reese Witherspoone & Owen Wilson.  I hope it's good - 
I hardly ever sit in front of the TV so it better be...

I had a couple of layouts go live today but I will blog about 
them next week.  I'm pretty exhausted from playing single
mum for the last 10 days - phew...

Meanwhile here's a little sneak of a challenge I played
along with yesterday at my favourite kit club "de jour"
Cest Magnifique!


Honestly the stash is so darn yummy that it really doesn't
matter what you make out of it - it'll be a hit!


Thanks for all the comments on my photo post -
I showed them all to Jack and he was blushing!


I owe you all one & I'll be visiting you all in the morning.
Can't wait to see what you've all been up to this weekend.
I've been successfully reducing my computer time over
the weekends, in favour of creating, and it's working well.

School holidays this week so none of the kids will be at
school - I'm never too sure if that's a blessing or not...





Saturday 24 March 2012

Photoshoot {Jack's Senior Dance} The Young and the Beautiful!






My son Jack had his Senior Dance this week so I took some photos 
of him and his friends in the late afternoon before they left.  



Of course they all looked dapper with their gorgeous girls...


There were a number of photographers so the poor kids didn't
 know where to look  and were a bit dazed by the "papparazzi".



The sea in the background was lovely but all thoughts of a
horizontal horizon flew out the window in my excitement so 
I've felt  quite seasick looking through all the shots -
 thank goodness for the straighten tool!


I loved that this beautiful girl bucked the Durban trend
 for long, flowing locks and wore her hair up in flowers.



Despite all the nerves beforehand everyone did a great job
 at looking relaxed!


It was surreal looking at these young men & realising 
that one of them belonged to me...



I took over 200 photos to end up with 10% scrapworthy ones.
With group shots especially - take A LOT of photos - there will
always be somebody with their eyes closed.


This little red  50's style dress was particularly cute...




This girl reminded me of Kayla Aimee sooo much!!




All things considered the boys were pretty obedient & obliging
to all the instructions being thrown at them...


I would hate to be a professional photographer.  I find it
 incredibly stressful to be thinking about my camera settings 
whilst trying to instill confidence & relaxation in my subjects.

I guess the more you do it the easier that would become...


I've noticed that, the more people there are to photograph
together, the more difficult it becomes - quite obviously I
suppose, as you now need to try to ensure that you have
EVERYONE'S attention simultaneously.


Of course many an imperfect photo can be rescued with some
funky editing.


Love this one!  They look like a boy band. 
 What should we call them?  One Direction??
Too Cool for School aren't they?!
Oh to be seventeen again eh?