Merry Christmas

To all my friends, all over the world, sending you warm wishes for a Christmas day blessed with love, hope and joy.

SCRAP.N.ART JOURNEY: Christmas Candy

To help get into the Christmas spirit, my generous friend,Angie, has decided to giveaway some Christmas Candy. I just couldn't help myself , I have to share the chance to win with you...I'm good like that!
Check out her blog for more details HERE

Dont forget, if you're after a bargain, Angie is also holding a 50% OFF sale over at her scrap.n.art supplies store.

Something Fishy???

I spent Melbourne Cup Day scrapbooking! What's up with that? Usually I would be out to a lovely ladies luncheon, but all my friends were working this year.

Anyway, it was a nice productiveday- the first day I've felt like creating in a LONG time. A layout for each of my boys of their first Charter boat Fishing Adventure. I was inspired by a class I took with Skye Johnson as a fundraiser for Breast Cancer.

Some good news

after a sad month with my Dad passing away, I finally have some good news to share. I have a card and an ATC published in this month's edition of Scrapbook news and review.

I also heard I have had an ATC accepted for publication in the next issue. I haven't been feeling very creative lately, so this is just a great boost.

Shabby chic challenge

My gorgeous friend Chris has set a new challenge at Born2Create. Check out the details here. Entry is open to international and Australian scrappers and cardmakers. Entries close October 20th.

The sun is out! & October Card class sneak peek

Here's a sneak peek of my "Think Pink" themed cards for my October classes I'm teaching at made with Memories in Rockingham. I'm teaching 6 classes next month. It's going to be a busy time with lots of new techniques and fun getting inky. Until then, I'm having a week off enjoying the School holidays.

It's been a beautiful day here in W.A. I sat outside and finished my book and am halfway thru another. Lovely way to spend the Queen's Birthday public holiday.

Yay! I'm being published.

One of my scrapbook pages was accepted for publication at Scrapbook News and Review magazine, They are having a special 12 hour sneak peek this weekend where you can look at the magazine online for 12 hours only from Saturday 8.30pm EST- to Sunday 8.30am. That's the US timezone which I know is 12 hours different from me in Western Australia. Please check it out by clicking on the magazine tab.

Teen grunge collage

Love this page I made from a Kit by Deb Mitchell. My Mr "Almost 15" is looking so handsome with his hair longer (yes I'm a proud Mum!). I tried out the barbed wire doodling I saw in a tutorial somewhere. I'll get back to you with a link if you are interested.

The barbed wire tutorial can be found here

more handmade flowers - roses or camelias?

Look what i made this morning.
I tried out core'dinations, patterned paper and recycled vintage book pages for these handmade flowers. Now I just need to design some cards for them to go on~ There's not enough hours in the day!

handmade flowers for cards and scrapbook pages

I've been creating! Inspired by a tattered old copy of "Little Women" and some Prima flowers I saw online, I decided to have a go at creating my own recycled book flowers. of course I couldn't resist adding ink and glimmer mist and some Bling to finish them off.

Look out for these on some of my cards and scrapbook pages soon

Digital photo sizes for enlargement

Sometimes when I go to get photos enlarged to 5 x 7, the photobooth gives the warning signal that the photo is not suitable for that enlargement so I did some research about what size a digital photo needs to be in order to get a good quality enlargement done. I hope this advice is useful for all you scrapbookers who are sick of getting Pixelated prints. I got it from an online printing service

Print Size/Product Minimum image resolution required
4 x 6 690x460 pixels
5 x 7 805x575 pixels
8 x 8 920x920 pixels 8 x 10 1150x920 pixels
8 x 12 1380x920 pixels
11 x 14 Enlargements 1610x1265 pixels
12 x 12 1380x1380 pixels
12 x 18 Enlargements 2070x1380 pixels
16 x 20 Posters 2300x1840 pixels
20 x 30 Posters 3450x2300 pixels
11 x 14 Collage Posters 1260x990 pixels
12 x 18 Collage Posters 1620x1080 pixels
16 x 20 Collage Posters 1800x1440 pixels
20 x 30 Collage Posters 2700x1800 pixels
Wallet Prints 374x259 pixels

Are you interested in a blind Scrap challenge?

Check out U2s new challenge blog where you can find my challenge.

A blind scrap is where you are given instructions on how to make a scrapbook page, but have no picture to follow. The fun of it is comparing your layout to the one the challenge setter designed. I hope you are inspired to create today!

August card sketch challenge at Scrapawayg3

Here's my card for the new August sketch challenge at Gayatri's http://scrapawayg3sketches.blogspot.com/

Check it out for your chance to win a prize

Chinese whispers

We play a scrapbooking challenge at Uproar2scrapmore called Chinese whispers. One member makes a layout, emails it on to the next person on the list, who scraplifts at least 4 elements and then emails it on to the next person. When everyone has done their turn, we can all reveal our pages. It's so much fun seeing how it all started, and how mine relates to that. I was number 8 on the list. I'm happy with my page, but it's VERY different than the original. I've been busting to share it. So here you go!

If you want to see the rest, come check them out in the Uproar gallery.

I tried a new blog layout for a few days, but I couldn't get used to it. I wish they would let you choose the middle colour. I like black, for some reason! Sorry if you've visited in the past few days and felt "lost". All back to normal now thanks to the Cutest Blog on the Block!

Blokey cards

I have the hardest time making "masculine" cards. I'm not good at "minimal" and I always think cards for men look better "clean and simple". I'm teaching "masculine cards" this month at my LSS (Made with Memories) since Father's day in Australia is the first Sunday in September.

Guess what? I found a way to make them look "clean" but still satisfy my need for "more" and fancy them up. I designed 3 cards using LOTS of background techniques. Not a scrap of patterned paper in sight! AND I love them. I can show you a little sneak peek, and will put all 3 cards up at the end of the month when my classes are over.

(click on the photo to see larger)

Happy Birthday Sissy

My sister, mum and her best friend all have birthdays this week, so we went out for lunch today to celebrate- Absolutely delicious meals, infact we were fighting over who had the best meal. (aaaah, family). Anyway, getting to the point... This cake slice shaped box was part of my present to my sister. I filled it with Dolly mixture and humbugs.
The template for the box came from Stampington Sampler magazine. Leave me a message if you'd like me to find you a link.
Patterned papers from Uproar2scrapmore. I used divine swirls Cuttlebug embossing folder (a bit fiddly) and teabag folding for the flower on top.
Thanks to ChrisW for making me thing "outside the box" for her Cybercrop challenge.

52 pieces of me

Since I started scrapbooking for my son, I have really enjoyed it. I am quite traditional in my thinking, in that I struggle to put flowers and pretty things on a boy's page. -Just not ready for that yet. Hopefully as I mature as a scrapbooker I will feel more comfortable with it.

Anyone who knows me, as a person, or my cardmaking style, will know that I am a real BLING girl. I love rhinestones and sparkle and lace and flowers on my cards. I'm missing that in scrapping for my boys, so I decided to do a few pages about me where I can embellish to my heart's content with whatever takes my fancy.

Here's one of my first pages( I plan to do "52 pieces of me")

Exciting news.

I have been invited to join a new design team at http://scrapawayg3sketches.blogspot.com/

I'm so excited to be part of a sketch design team. I absolutely love working with sketches as the springboard to my cards and scrapbook pages. I hope you'll come and check it out. Gayatri has a monthly competition with a prize pack and all you have to do is make a card using her sketch to enter. This is the card I made as inspiration for the first sketch.

Cybercrop this weekend

I'm hostng a challenge and maybe a lesson or 2. Hope to see you at Uproar2scrapmore this weekend.

Birdsong ATC

The ATC theme this month at Uproar is "Birds". I've used vintage sheet music for my background, coloured with distress inks. Stamps from Basic Grey, inkadinkado and Autumn leaves

Bazzill Tattered rose tutorial

I taught this handmade flower as part of a class earlier this year, and have had a few requests for pictures. The first time is a bit fiddly, after that you'll be in love!

You will need Bazzill Cardstock, EK success large and medium retro flower punches, ink, sponge and rhinestones (optional)

punch 2 large and 1 medium flower from Bazzill cardstock (it must be Bazzill as it has 2 layers, this will not work with regular cardstock)

Now scrunch those flowers up, really well. the more you scrunch the easier the next step will be. Open them back up again.

This is the trickiest part! Peel apart the 2 layers of Bazzill on the flowers by separating at the tips of the petals and peeling back to the centre- don't pull the centre apart. Do this for each petal on the three flowers you have punched.out

Roll both layers of petal toward the centre of your flowers. It doesn't have to be uniform. You are going for a "distressed" look. Now stick the 2 large flowers on top of each other. Try to off set them a little, Add the smallest flower to the centre.

Apply ink to the flower with a sponge for a lighter look, or direct to the flower with the inkpad for a deeper colour. You can do this before or after you assemble the flower. Just keep adding ink until you're happy with the look

stick a gemstone to the centre . Here's a close-up for you

use your flower to decorate cards, scrapbook pages or gift boxes.

If you make any projects using my tutorial please give credt with a link back to my tutorial and, please post a comment here with a link to your blog. I'd love to see them.

June Cybercrop Theme

is "Birthdays". Thought I'd give you some time to collect up your photos you've been planning to scrap, and join me at Uproar2scrapmore on Friday 26th, Saturday27th and Sunday 28th of June. Festivities commence at 7.30pm Queensland time Friday night with challenges, games, special offers and classes throughout the weekend.
It's a cybercrop, a great big virtual crop that my friends from all over the world are welcome to check out...with lots of inspiration and fun. hope to see you there.

I'll be teaching a class with distress inks~like I used to make the background on this card

and the ATC pictured above

Happy 21st Jem

My niece is turning 21. I can't believe it! She was 1 when I met her- where does the time go? She's grown-up into a happy bubbly young woman- so I couldn't resist making her a "bubbly" card.

Cards of the day

I got a BIG SHOT!!! and I have been excitedly making cards using the cuttlebug embossing folders and papers from my Uproar design team kit. Here's 2 for today inspired by the June sketches from Pagemaps

Celebrating Mothers

I've been working on my scrapbook challenges today. This is the most lumpy bumpy embellishing I have ever done, and I love it. Definately will be going in a frame, not tucked away in a book.

It's cybercrop weekend at UPROAR

This morning I taught an online class on techniques with Cuttlebug embossing folders, as part of my design team gig at Uproar to Scrapmore. You can check it out here.There are card and scrapbooking challenges with prizes all weekend. Hope you can join us.

distressed?

Here's one of the cards that I taught during May, in a class all about distress inks. . I love the watercolour look you can acheive.

I got my official Tiger Team Blinkie

I'm so excited! I wanted to share my new blinkie with you. It's my design team badge. I'll be getting my first design team kit this week and I can't wait to see it. Thanks Dalena,

If you are interested in getting Blinkies made, or even a personally designed blog layout or header, check out STAR. She made the Tiger Team Blinkies. Isn't she clever?

My entry for ChrisW's weekly challenge at Uproar2scrapmore. The criteria were: Circle feature,multiple pics and some clustering. I hope the flowers count as clustering? Can you see me? I'm 3 years old in this photo. Another layout I did at my scrapbooking class this week. it is going to have strip journalling around the photos eventually, but I'm still thinking about the words.

That's my boy!

He's such a clown! I know it's gross, but I couldn't help myself- it just had to be scrapped.

Yay I stamped today!

Yay, I stamped today!

Today I finally caught up with my stamping friend and made a couple of cards. I was inspired by some gorgeous flocked papers that Kylie sent me as a prize for winning a Cybercrop blind challenge at Uproar2scrapmore. Stamps are from Kaisercraft

sorry I'm MIA

I've had a cold for the last week and it's hanging around. Not getting much creating done.

It was an exciting mail day though. ATCs from a "Flower Power" swap I was in, hosted by the very talented Renu, arrived today. Here's the whole set for you to ooh and aah over. They certainly brightened my day.

ATCs created by L to R, top row- me, Renu, Martha

Middle row- Faith, Cindi, Loretta

bottom row - Suzi, Patty, Terry

Movie Title ATC

can you guess which movie this ATC is about?

It's for a Movie Title swap at the Stamp-Shack. My friend Chris, in Canada has great theme ideas. I decided to go with the old Alfred Hitchcock thriller- "The Birds". Background is alcohol inks. Images from Inky Antics and inkadinkado

My how incy wincy has grown.

Remember the spider I showed you in this post, way back in February? Well, we've watched her grow, and boy has she grown. Check out the latest pic, taken yesterday.

I've been chosen for a Design Team!

Yes, that's my big news! I hope you're doing the happy dance with me.

I'm officially part of the Tiger Team at Uproar to Scrapmore. Dalena has asked me to be the Card making and stamping Guru (her words)..and I'm so flattered. The Uproar design team has amazingly talented scrapbookers (Lisa, Amanda, Kylie and Chris) ,who are so inspiring they got me started scrapping when I said I never would! I'll be doing monthly challenges and cybercrop competitions too. I hope you'll check out all the fun in the forums and the inspiration in the gallery, as well as Dalena's amazing special offers. See you there!

last chance Ink-a-palooza Challenge

hot foot it , over to the Stamp Shack for your last chance to enter my Ink-a-palooza challenge to create a single layer card. I have a great stamp set on offer as a prize. Entries close Sunday May 3rd, Midnight PST. oops, that's today people. get a move on. There are 14 other great challenges and lots of prizes on offer too.
Just checked out what midnight PST means for Australians. Apparently it is 19 hours behind Sydney time, so if you work thru the night, you can get all 15 challenges done. C'mon Aussie C'mon!

Blingy souvenir

I love my Bling, and wear a big blingy necklace most days. Here's my one and only blingy souvenir from my trip to Darwin.

Top is the front, but I think the back is just as pretty.

on cloud 9

I'm bursting to share some exciting news with you. I just need a few more days before I can spill the beans...

Now after that teaser- I'll share a photo I took from the plane as we flew out of Darwin.

Mojo, Mojo, where for art thou????

just feeling Blaaa and not at all creative since we got home from Darwin, Couldn't have left my mojo there, could I?

So today I'll share another of my holiday photos. This is one of the favourite Sunset pics I took.

Darwin was fun!

Did you miss me? I've been on holiday with my family for 9 days in the Northern Territory. Here's my favourite landscape photo from our trip. This is Florence Falls. We swam in the cool, clear waters of the lagoon/billabong. I'll show you some more of my favourite photos tomorrow.

Ink-a-palooza

Check out the Stamp-Shack for a whole week of inky challenges. Starting Friday 24th April, lots of fun, inspiration and prizes. I'd love to see you there.

mini- scrapbook with paper towel or dunny roll tubes

One of my scrapping friends just had a baby and this is the mini-album I made her from empty cardboard dunny rolls. I hope it reminds her of all the poop she's wiped since he was born.

She's such a good stick- took it in fun and wants to display it in her bathroom! Love ya Darl!