Four (Paper Bakery Sketch #8)

I played along again (at the last minute) with the latest sketch over at the Paper Bakery.  The sketch had two circles, but I chose not to use them.  I flipped the orientation of the box and strip behind the photos.  I used my June Paper Bakery Kit, and this was my first layout made with it.

I chose a photo of my kids and their nieces which my Mother in Law took during Autumn when the kids were playing in the leaves at her house.  I love this photo as it has all the kids in line of their age.  The colours of the red Autumn leaves looked great with the corrugated paper, so that was my starting point.  I love the Elle's Studio Saltwater frames, and was so keen to use them, one to frame the photo and the other for the journaling.  My layout is quite simple, but I love how it turned out. The only extra items that aren't from the kit are the plain vellum paper (which I layered under the frames to provide some separation), white cardstock, and a new stamp from Paper Bakery (stamps like a dream, such good quality!).

Here is the sketch:

And here is my layout:

Have a blessed rest of your weekend, its Sunday afternoon here!

Melissa x

One Reason I Love Being A Scrapbooker

Well there are lots of reasons I love being a scrapbooker (lovely paper being the main reason), but the reason I want to share today is convenience.  Now that may seem like a strange topic to be writing about when it comes to scrapbooking, but I have the perfect example.  

A few weeks ago Azaria had two parties to go to on a Saturday morning.  Both were princess-themed 4 year old girl parties, and they started at 10 am and 12 pm, respectively.  This meant that while Shaun took Sam to his last rugby game of the season, I was going to be surrounded by darling princesses (and a handful of princes) for 5 hours!

Azaria and I had gone shopping the day before, and purchased Twilight Sparkle and Apple Jack (My Little Ponies) for the birthday girls.  I always keep two rolls of paper in my cupboard, one for girls and the other for boys.  So after we wrapped the presents I had to whip up two girly cards in about 5 minutes, and this is what I came up with:

Now they aren't perfect or elaborate, they are pretty much chipboard stickers and stamping (even a little crooked) on card stock.  However, they are entirely suitable for a 4 year old girl, and far more affordable than the $12 that it would have cost to buy two cards!

Have a great weekend!

Melissa x

Hello Hello!

Well I haven't disappeared from the blogging and scrapping world!  Last Tuesday Shaun and I flew up to Auckland for our annual Church Conference (City Impact Church Global Impact Conference), and it was amazing.  Global Impact Conference was back on after a 2 year break, and it was so awesome to catch up with friends from all over NZ!  We were so blessed to stay with a lovely family (who are our dear friends), and over three days (and fours nights) were blessed with outstanding worship, preaching, teaching and fellowship!

A few weeks ago I decided at the very last minute to apply for the American Crafts 2013/14 Design Team.  I had originally decided I wouldn't, then once I realised the closing date was a week later than I'd thought, "what have I got to loose?"  Well I didn't get in, but it was an awesome experience to push myself in my creativity, and I will definitely have another go next year.  The team was announced this week, and I was very excited to see fellow Lets Get Sketchy DT member Ashley Horton made it!! Big congratulations to Ashley, so well deserved as her layouts are awesome and so inspirational!

I've decided to use my layouts for something else, but thought I'd share the card and two off the page projects that I made for my application:

It was so much fun to pull together all my AC products, mix them up and just create! I really enjoyed using the Amy Tangerine rubbons for the sentiment, and you know that I adore everything Dear Lizzy (this is 5th & Frolic)!!

I made altered this plain white frame from The Warehouse for Azaria's bedroom.  She is four and I wanted some positive words that were easy to read to be in her room.  She loves it! 

I made this little mini album from some packaging that came with a scrapbook product order (basically some thick cardboard).  I'm yet to finish this, but intend on filling it with Instagrams and small photos of our family from June.  I'll share some photos once I've finished it :)

So there you have it, a look into what I created under pressure!

Be blessed

Melissa x

P.S. So excited William & Kate had a baby boy!!

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas!!!

Welcome to the Christmas in July Blog Hop (organised by the fabulous Ruth  through a forum post over at Two Peas in a Bucket), inspiring you to get out your Christmas stash and use it before all the new collections are introduced this month.  Join the fun and create something too, use the hashtag #scrapbookchristmas in Twitter, Facebook or Instagram.

You would have come here from Tasha's lovely blog, or you may have made your way on your own.

Well I was so excited when I found Ruth's post over at 2Peas as like most of you, I have left over Christmas product in my stash.  I have leftovers from a Studio Calico kit that I used for my 2012 December Daily Album, and even older product that I purchased when I first started scrapping.  I was really keen to use it up!

One thing I find challenging about Christmas product is that it isn't made for Southern Hemisphere Summer Christmases (here in New Zealand we celebrate Christmas with BBQs and sun!).  As I'm so blessed to live in Queenstown, where we get snow in Winter I decided to make non-Christmas Winter layouts with Christmas products.  

I made up the following kit of products:

Then I made the following layouts (my photos are not the best, we are mid-Winter here, and have had a lot of snow and grey days):

The first layout is of my beautiful niece Jessie-Rose, and her first snow experience:

The background stripe is a Simple Stories Paper that came with a Christmas themed Studio Calico add-on kit that I purchased last year for my December Daily Album.  I remembered about it after I took the photo of my full sheets of paper.

This next layout is my son playing in the snow last year during a "Snow Day", which is a day off school from a big snow dump!  Always lots of fun for the kids!

I enjoyed layering on this one, and used up some really old snowflake rubons.

This next layout has a photo of my daughter and I in 2011, outside my work.

I decided to fussy cut a couple of the large snow flakes, then I had the challenge of integrating them into the design of the page.  After I'd finished my journaling at the bottom I realised I had more of the story to tell, so added in some more!

This last page is not my favourite, as I was down to the real scraps, but I knew I wanted to use that typography paper, which has lyrics from Christmas songs on it.  I decided to scrap photos of my daughter playing in the snow this Winter, and I purposefully chose not to edit them by  lightening, as I really wanted to capture the nature of the weather the day her and my son got to play outside. I think this tells the true nature of the story, as it was still snowing when they begged me to go outside.  I tried to use up as many of the epoxy snowflakes as I could to represent the snow falling.

I hope you enjoyed my projects, I certainly had loads of fun making them, and I love that Winter Hemisphere Christmas product can work for scrapping Winter photos!  It feels so great to use up old stash, and now I know I can look forward to CHA product reveals next week even more!

Next on the hop is Alison, she makes beautiful layouts, do go and check out what she's made.

Thanks for visiting!
Be blessed
Melissa x

Reflections of You 2! (The Paper Bakery Sketch Challenge #7)

I played along with the Paper Bakery Sketch Challenge #7, which is this lovely sketch:

I purposefully took a photo of my kids in the supermarket trolley last week, just so I could scrap these two photos together!  I can't believe the changes in just over three years!  I used my May Paper Bakery Kit (which I'm nearly at the end of now, and am making myself finish before I break open my June kit) and some extras from my stash like the Maggie Holmes for Crate Paper Frame, the black foam thickers, some My Minds Eye brads and Desert Mister Hueys.  I love how it turned out!

Thanks for looking!

Be blessed

Melissa x

The Story of a Girl by a Boy with a Camera (Use Your Words)

Welcome to our first official reveal and challenge over at Use Your Words Challenge Blog!  We are all so excited about today, and can't wait for you to join in and play along!  

What I love so much about Use Your Words is that you can scrapbook in any style, about any subject,  provided that you use the word that's provided either in your title or in your journaling.  The word for this challenge is "STORY". There is so much scope within this word, and as scrapbookers, I believe that as well as indulging in our love of pretty paper and embellishments, we also love to preserve our memories by telling our stories.

I decided to use "Story" in my title, in order to explain what is behind these beautiful photos of my daughter Azaria, which were taken by my son (aged 5) last December.  Every Christmas my husband creates beautiful canvases with photos of our kids and us.  Shaun gave Sam the camera and told him to go and take some photos of Azaria, and these were my two favourites.

Here is my layout:

I had so much fun creating this layout. I started knowing that I wanted to use the little bags behind the photos, and that I wanted to mix vintage imagery with modern products.  I also knew that I wanted a mix of lettering for my title.  I used a mix of My Minds Eye, Simple Stories Vintage Bliss, Echo Park Paper Beautiful Moments, Paper Bakery Flair, Evalicious Flair and a stamp, and random other die cuts from my stash.  I had fun with my new Amy Tangerine stitching template too!

I'm so looking forward to seeing what you create!

Be blessed

Melissa x

Sisters (Lets Get Sketchy)

Today is Week 3 reveal over at Lets Get Sketchy and those of us in Team A are back on.  I must say I'm having an absolute blast being on this team, I love that we all have different styles, and I love seeing my team members layouts!  Do go and check them out :)

This weeks sketch is by the super talented Ashley Horton:

I decided to scrap another one of my rediscovered disposable camera photos from our wedding reception (nearly 10 years ago)!! This photo is of my lovely sister Kristin and I, and I just love the joy in our faces!

I used the lovely new Beautiful Life collection by Echo Park Paper Co. for this layout.  Instead of using three photos, I decided to showcase the lovely girly papers.  I kept this one really simple, with lots of white space, just a little bit of misting, and minimal embellishment.

I do hope you come and play along with us week, we love seeing how the sketches inspire you.  Thanks for visiting. Be blessed!

Melissa x