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

A Truly Remarkable Experience (Lets Get Sketchy)

As July has 5 Mondays, the reveal this week is "Anything Goes", which pretty much means we could create any layout we wanted.  This provided me with the perfect opportunity to use up the last full sheet of paper left from my May Paper Bakery Kit, which is the lovely Dreamy paper, by Maggie Holmes for Crate Paper (I especially love the pink bokeh effect running through it).

These photos are really big and really old, they were taken back in 2003 for a hair competition that was an event during Queenstown Winter Festival.  I'd just done my first stage show, and the hairdressers from the show needed someone with long hair to do a live hair-up.  The theme was Winter Queen, and they asked me and of course I thought what an amazing fun opportunity!  My hairdresser made the castle on my head from foam, and spray painted it silver.  We didn't win, but we had a fantastic time, and being given the photos was a bonus!

Being a big fan of Shimelle Laine (Glitter Girl) has encouraged me to actually scrap photos of myself.  When you have children (and if having a baby was the reason you started scrapping), I find that it's very easy to not include photos of yourself in your scrapbooks.  So I've been making an effort to scrap myself lately too :)

I loved how these photos looked on the paper, so I just went for simple design and very minimal embellishment, but with added interest layering the title onto the photos.  I had fun with my butterfly punch and scallop border punch (which I love and often forget about).  

In addition to my Paper Bakery Kit, I used American Crafts glitter tape, and some glittery white brads.

Thanks for looking, I can't wait to see what you make this week as you freestyle it!

Be blessed

Melissa x

Use Your Words - Last Chance for July

Hello, just a quick post to remind you that our first ever official challenge over at Use Your Words is nearly over for July.  You have 1 day, 18 hours and 18 minutes (and counting LOL) to play along!!!

Remember that the word to be inspired by is STORY, and this must be included either in you title or journaling.  Do come and play along, its so much fun!