Lets Get Sketchy - Exciting News!!!

Good morning!  I can barely contain my excitement! Lets Get Sketchy is going digital publishing a quarterly online scrapbooking magazine!  "Our online publication will be used to showcase designers from all over the world, to inspire our fellow scrappers, and to explore current trends and techniques.  This publication will also present awesome sketches for your personal use and, last but not least, to showcase our love of scrapbooking."  Full details, including submission requirements for our first issue can be found on the blog here.   

I'm so excited to be a part of this!  Make sure you start working on your submissions!  

Be blessed 

Melissa x

Artfull Crafts DT Intro!

Good morning, just a quick post before I head to work to say that my Design Team introduction is up on the Artfull Crafts Blog so do go and check it out, and learn a little bit more about me!

I share some of my favourite work, including the cover of my December Daily 2012 mini album.

I kept my cover really simple, and just painted my chipboard with white acrylic paint, as I wanted to feature the lovely Woodgrain Thickers.  I'm so looking forward to doing this project again this year! Here is one of inside pages:

Thanks for looking, I'll be back soon with some more layouts to share.  In the mean time I'm scrapping lots trying to get ahead with upcoming Design Team projects :)

Be blessed

Melissa x

You (Lets Get Sketchy)

Hello! Well its time for the Week 3 August sketch over at Lets Get Sketchy.  I just love sketches as they push my creative boundaries, and challenge me to be true to my style, whilst being influenced by the sketch. 

This week we had the following awesome sketch to play with, designed by the amazingly talented and lovely Ashley Horton.

I decided to do a layout about my son this week, as I can very easily get caught up in pretty girly products!  This layout is all about Sam and his glasses, which he got earlier in the year!  I took this photo at the optometrist, and these are the glasses that he picked out himself and loved. Its so hard to get a genuine smile from Sam when I take his photo, but I just love the joy in his face in this one! 

I decided to cluster all my elements around the photo, with a diagonal sprinkling of ink and wood veneers.  I used a Studio Calico kit, and added the glasses die cut, Crate Paper tag, Jillibean Soup boy sticker and title, Glitz washi tape, die cut leaf and the Maggie Homes for Crate frame.  I just love that matrix-movie style patterned paper that I used for my background.

I can't wait to see your take on the sketch!

Be blessed

Melissa x

Artfull Crafts Design Team!

Hello!  Well today is very exciting because I'm able to announce that I made the 2013 Design Team for Artfull Crafts!  This is an amazing opportunity and blessing, and I'm really looking forward to working with Liz and the team for the next year.  Artfull Crafts is located in Timaru, and is a scrapbooking shop and online retailer.  Its located about 3.5 hours north east of Queenstown - which makes me very excited!!  I'm really looking forward to getting to know the other ladies on the team, and providing inspiration on the Artfull Crafts Blog (which has new posts daily, and fun challenges each month).  Make sure you follow the Artfull Crafts Blog, and Facebook page to keep up with all that's happening!  Do come on over and meet the new Design Team, all of whom are very talented ladies!

Here are two never-shared-before layouts which are in my Artfull Crafts Gallery, both made with American Crafts Dear Lizzy and Amy Tangerine products. Make sure you check out the full gallery here.

This layout is all about the effort it took to get a photo of my daughter Azaria, it usually takes several different faces to get the sweet smilely one!  But in all honesty, I love all the funny faces my kids pull!

And speaking of pulling faces, this layout is about my husband and I at a Winter Ball last year.  The local Queenstown Community raised money to upgrade our Memorial Hall, and Shaun was the MC for the evening at the ball.  We had such a fun time, dancing the night away!

Have a blessed rest of your weekend!

Melissa x

Enjoy Camping 2013

Hello, well its Saturday night here and Shaun is out singing with his band at a gig. So that means that the kids are asleep and I'm scrapbooking and blogging!  And I may be eating gluten free and dairy free banana berry and chocolate muffins which I baked tonight!

I have a layout to share today that I made for Shimelle's recent Best of Both Worlds Kit online Scrapbooking weekend, however I ran out of time to complete it in time.  I finally finished it today, and I made it with my June Paper Bakery kit.  My layout is about our summer camping trip Lake Aviemore, and has three photos that really capture what we did around camp.

It was based on the following sketch, which I flipped to have the photos line up horizontally:

And here is my layout:

I love the Elle's Studio goodies in this kit from the Saltwater Collection, especially the cute frames!

Its great to have another layout done of our summer holiday, and I'm currently part way through a mini album which I'll share once completed.  

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Melissa x

I Believe in Love & Coffee (Use Your Words)

Hello and welcome to another challenge over at Use Your Words challenge blog!  The other Design Team girls and I have been having a blast coming up with layouts for the featured words. The word for the mid August challenge is "BELIEVE".  We were chatting about what we were going to scrap, and in the list of possible ideas Leanne mentioned "coffee", probably more as a joke, however us Kiwi and Aussie girls do love our coffee!!  I immediately remembered that I had taken a photo of my coffee a couple of weeks ago (yes its a strange thing I do, but hey if it looks good I love the memory ;) .  

So this photo was taken at our favourite cafe in Queenstown called Vudu Larder, which seriously has the best coffee and food (including Gluten Free treats)!  Its always packed out, the staff are fantastic, and the cabinet display is mouthwatering! 

Now for the "love" part.  Love of course is far more important than coffee, and for me is about God's love for us, such that He gave us His son to make a way to restore our relationship with Him (see John 3:16).

I shared recently that I was struggling with my creativity recently, but thanks to this layout topic, it all returned!  And so the following layout came together really easily.

I used all Dear Lizzy 5th & Frolic, which I must say I've fallen back in love with since I purchased the die cuts.  Aside from the 12x12 background paper, this page is made with the 6x6 pad, a die cuts, stickers, and one of the cut apart journaling cards.  I cut up the triangle paper into individual triangles, and scattered them as confetti, mixed in with some pink sequins and white ink splatters.  My lettering stickers are from Glitz Design (they make awesome mini letters) and Studio Calico.

Now for some closeups of my layering:

Thanks for looking, and reading :+)

Do make sure you head over to the blog and check out the fabulous layouts the rest of the DT have made! I can't wait to see what you create with the word Believe. Remember it must feature on your layout, either in your title and/or in you journaling.

Enjoy your coffee break today, I know I will!

Melissa x

Hello You (August Scrapstuffz "Inspired By" Challenges Blog)

I have a layout revealed over at Scrapstuffz "Inspired By" Challenges today!  Our inspiration piece was the following lovely beach photo:

I was inspired by the colours of the deck chairs, and the way they are lined up in the photo.  I used yellow with pops of aqua and pink, and lined my embelishments up along side the lower third of the page.  I had fun with an exclusive Paper Bakery mask, and my new Amy Tangerine Stitching Template.  

My layout is all about my daughter, and the new dress that she got from a local school fair.  The cutest thing is that the dress was about 5 sizes too big, but she still insisted on wearing it. At least we'll get lots of use from it!

I just absolutely adore that chipboard vase of flowers from Simple Stories Vintage Bliss.  I had to make sure it featured, so I anchored it on the strip of yellow polka dot paper with a couple of woodgrain pennants from the same collection.

Check out the Scrapstuffz blog for all the details. Do come and play along, I can't wait to see what inspires you!

Be blessed 

Melissa x

Your Heart is My Home

Last night while Shaun was performing in a local stage show I made two pages.  One page is for my DT work, but this one is for another of the challenges hosted by Shimelle for her Best of Both World's kit inspiration weekend.  As I said yesterday, I don't have a kit, but the challenges are open to use any supplies.

I decided to play along with the Scrapbooking on the Vertical challenge, which required just as the name of the challenge says, to emphasise the vertical.  I just loved this challenge, and as I'm on a stash busting mission (prior to new CHA product arriving), I used all Dear Lizzy 5th & Frolic collection on a Glitz Design patterned paper for the background.  I also mixed my own mist and applied it to my page with a plastic bag (technique learnt from the very talented Jana Werner).  I'm working on developing a more artsy style as I love the texture it adds, and I'm really happy with how this turned out.

My layout is about my love for my husband and how much I appreciate him x

I love the fox die cut from 5th & Frolic, sometimes I find it hard to incorporate cutesy images, but the fox worked really well!

I love layering elements, and went to town with the stickers from the collection!

Thanks for looking, I've had so much fun playing along with Shimelle's challenges, I may even have time to make a couple more.

Be blessed

Melissa x

A Little of This

Recently Shimelle Laine held an online scrappy weekend of challenges to inspire us with layouts created with her Best of Both Worlds Kit.  I don't have a kit at this stage, however she opened up the challenges to everyone.  I just love Shimelle, she's the first online scrapbooker that really inspired me, and I love how passionate she is about this hobby.  I also admire that she has made a full time job in the scrapping industry!

I decided to play along with her Scrapbooking In Triplicate challenge, which required grouping embellishments in threes.  

My layout is another one with photos from my kids and their cousins playing in the Autumn leaves this year.  This one focuses on my son and the fun he had.  I started with papers from a Studio Calico kit, and then I added in the Pebbles cards, wood veneers, doilies, and had stitching over some plain vellum.

I'm loving the texture that the Amy Tangerine hand stitching kit adds to my layouts.  This ampersand was perfect as I needed to tie the two Pebbles cards together.

I got creative with this grouping of 3, and wanted to emphasis the white arrow on the card with the two additional cork stickers.  I love these brads from My Minds Eye too!

My groups of 3 embellishments include: 3 areas of ink splatters, 3 brads, 3 doilies, 3 arrows (one on the card and two cork stickers), 3 wood veneer stars, 3 strips of washi tape, and 3 cork <'s.  It was lots of fun, and I love the determination in Sam's face in the top photo!

Thanks for looking

Melissa x

100 Percent Fun (Paper Bakery Sketch #9)

I played along with the latest sketch (#9) over at Paper Bakery, and amazingly I actually got most of my layout made at a Friday night crop with friends.  If you're scrapped with me at a crop before, you'll know that I struggle to be productive outside of my own creative space (and I get way too distracted)!  

Sketch #9 is full of lovely layers, and was designed by the very talented Juliana Michaels:

Last week I struggled with my creative flow, such that I felt that it had taken a holiday and hadn't invited me!  I decided to stick closely to the sketch, and use my May Paper Bakery Kit.  I'd chosen some recent photos of my kids playing in the snow, and I'd purposefully not lightened them, as I wanted them to represent the true state of the weather that day.  So when I placed them on the layout, the lovely bright layers of the kit totally took away from my photos. The next day I tore them off (very bravely, I must add), and replaced them with these two photos of my niece holding my kids upside down as they played in the Autumn leaves at Grandma's house.

So here is my layout:

I just love the pure look of joy on Azaria's face in this one!

I added the black Dear Lizzy thickers, Bella Blvd washi tape, Studio Calico mist, white card stock, and the pie chart stamp which is an exclusive to Paper Bakery.  Paper Bakery is awesome, I can't recommend it enough if you're looking for a kit club to join.

I didn't add much writing on this one, as I'm creating several pages about the same day.

Thanks for looking, be blessed

Melissa x

No School Today (Lets Get Sketchy)

Welcome to August over at Lets Get Sketchy!  That means a whole new month of fabulous sketches, and opportunities for you to play along!

This week we all fell in love with the following sketch by Brenshevia (and I was so excited that it was Team A's to play with!):

I love working with strips of paper, and although I was tempted to use all washi, I love the texture that lots of different pieces of paper (my all time favorite product) provides.  I decided to layer my strips of paper haphazardly, and tore some of the edges to provide interest.  I used a variety of Crate Paper papers, (and some American Crafts glitter tape), and then used a Glitz Design chalkboard paper for my background.  I tucked in some ephemera and stickers around the edges of my photo, and used some silver bling to highlight the white flowers.  I loved journaling with my white gel pen.

My layout is all about the snow we had at the childcare that my husband manages during a polar blast in 2011, and how excited we were!  Our alpine village was shut for 3 days, and there was just so much snow.  I've actually made a whole album about the polar blast, I may share some pages soon.

I can't wait to see your take on the sketch!

Be blessed!

Melissa x

A Sweet Spring Moment (Use Your Words)

Welcome to our second challenge reveal over at Use Your Words Challenge Blog.  This challenge our word is MOMENT, and to play along you have to use it in your title or journaling.

I chose to scrapbook a page about my beautiful niece Jessie-Rose, who was born in London, and I haven't met yet.  My sister and her husband moved over to work in London over 4 years ago, and they had Jessie-Rose in June 2012, so shes just turned 1!  I love this photo because it applies the rule of thirds.  I also love that Jessie-Rose is looking over her shoulder, so I thought it was perfect to add in the butterflies, as it looks like she is watching them.

I used the left overs of my May Paper Bakery Kit, with some added washi tape, pink patterned paper, Bella Blvd white letter stickers, and October Afternoon Woodland Park chipboard buttons.  When I was first laying the page out I didn't have any pink, but I felt that something was missing.  Adding the pink definitely added a needed pop of colour!

Make sure you play along and link up with us, you have the next two weeks before our next reveal.  I can't wait to see what you make!

Be blessed

Melissa x